Revenge Isn't Sweet
by xJaimieP94x
Summary: "What do you want from her?" I growled through clenched teeth.   "I'll keep it simple for you Detective; you release our three leaders, or we kill your wife." Full Summary Inside, All human, AU, BxE, alternating points of view.
1. Preface

**Disclaimer: All characters and the like belong to Stephanie Meyer.  
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**Full Summary: **

Edward is an overworking detective, trying to balance the time he has between closing a major case which involves the Volturi gang, finding his missing son, and keeping his relationship with his wife intact.

After arresting various leaders, Edward now awaits the trial, however a group of gang members plan on getting their leaders out of jail by bargaining with Edward. How? By kidnapping his wife and threatening to kill her unless he does what they say. What will his decision be between the city's safety, or his love's life…?

**Preface**

I had never felt so helpless in my entire life.

As I looked at the screen before me, I began to regret any decisions I had made that had lead me to this situation, that lead me to become a detective, and that lead me to take _that _particular case. It all inevitably lead to this moment, watching my beloved on a screen, her skin battered and bruised, a gun pressed to her head. I could do nothing to help her right now but internally punish myself for being on this side of things. The side were it was safe, when instead it should be her, and I should be on the floor battered and bruised at the feet of a group of gang members with a gun pressed to my own forehead. What I would do to be able to swap positions.

All I could do was wait as patiently as I could for the other officers in the room to connect the video call, and track down the position of the whereabouts of my wife's kidnappers.

I glanced quickly up over the TV where a partner of mine held up his hand with three fingers out. _3 minutes._

_Why do I get the feeling these are going to be three long minutes?_

I looked back down to the screen which was broadcasting the live image. It had been the first time I had seen her in over two months. My Bella. I would ask myself why they would take someone as innocent as her. It was me they wanted, it was me they needed for this plan, yet they decided to take my biggest weakness, the one person I swore to protect.

The gun pressed more forcefully to her head, and her small whimper brought me back to the present. I ran my hand through my hair nervously and forced myself to look away from her face back into the menacing face of the sick person who decided to take her.

"So, has it been completed?" The voice said from behind the mask.

"No, I need more time." I answered as I looked down to my Bella's face. As much as I didn't want to leave her with those men, those killers, I was currently assembling a team that would help find her.

"Well you don't have more time, we said a month, and a month is nearly up."

The guy behind the television rotated his hand in a circular motion to tell me to keep the conversation going.

"I…I know that, but something like this doesn't take a month, and I'm just one man, I can't supply you with what you want in that amount of time."

"Well tough luck, it's either a month or…" he pushed Bella forward closer to the screen, grabbed her hair to tilt her head back and then pressed the gun under he chin, "…your little mate will suffer the consequences."

"No!" I shouted, standing up from my seat.

"What?" he said calmly as he brought the gun back and smacked it across her head causing her body to fall slightly to the side. My fist clenched by my side as I watched some blood trickle down her skin, "Do you want to reconsider that answer? Don't think I won't do it." She lifted her hand up and placed it gently to her head and winced slightly, but her eyes pleaded with me to just follow the orders, to not make things worse for myself.

"Okay, but please," I looked directly into the man's eyes, "Give me an extra day or two, to make sure everything is finalised and in place."

Through the slits in the balaclava, I could see his eyes were slightly apprehensive as he thought over my extra proposal. Whilst he was thinking, I took another chance to look back up to the group of men who were finding the location to see them bustling around each other, and looking intently on the screen as the possible location got closer and closer to were my wife was. The man lifted his hand up again but showing 1 single finger.

_1 minute left,_ _not long now._

Unfortunately, my subtle attempt wasn't so subtle, and the man on the screen had his head cocked to one side and asked, "What are you looking at?"

I looked back down to the screen and tried my best to cover it up, "What? Nothing, I'm nervous that's all, you've got my wife as a hostage before my very eyes." As I mentioned the word wife I saw Bella smile slightly. We were going through a hard time at the moment, but right now we are together and to get through this, I knew we had to be as one.

The man nodded slowly once, as if he didn't truly believe my answer, and he opened his mouth to say something when one of the officers behind the screen shouted, "Triangulating position, estimated time 30 seconds."

My breathing stopped and the officer realised his mistake as the whole room was suddenly silent. I kept my eyes facing the screen whilst mentally hoping he hadn't heard we were tracking their position.

"What was that?" He shouted, "Are you tracking us?" He pulled Bella back to him and pushed the gun's barrel into her temple, "Call it off now otherwise I'll shoot her!"

"20 seconds left Detective." The officer shouted again, knowing now there was no point in keeping quiet knowing the kidnappers knew what we were doing.

"Do it!" The man shouted, pushing the gun harder against her head.

I looked at Bella whose eyes were glistening as she fought with herself not to cry. Her eyes met mine, and in that moment the kidnapper's shouts and the noise of the officers in the room seemed to quiet down and become simple background noise, as we connected in a way that allowed us to understand each other, to communicate to one another, to represent the love we feel for one another.

"You have till the count of three to call it off." He demanded once again.

"10 seconds left Edward." The officer called out.

"One…." The man started.

"Look, stop, please, if you kill her we won't help you anymore." The man moved his gun from Bella's head briefly to point at the floor where the gun shot into the floor a few inches away from Bella's legs.

"Two…" He continued, pressing the now burning gun into Bella's neck were she cried from the burn of the barrel. Her body now starting to shake from sobs she could no longer hold in.

"Please, for the love of God, please don't do this," I kept my voice calm to try and reason with him, but my own body started to shake, as I realised I was crying also. "Please don't." I pleaded, as my sobs became heavier and I looked down, ashamed for not being the strong person right now.

"Edward?" A small, fragile voice spoke up, and my head lifted quickly to see Bella looking at me with love and somehow even pride, even though she knew I had let her down. "I love you." She whispered, her hand lifting up slightly as if she was going to reach out for me.

I placed my hand on the screen where I imagined she would have placed hers and responded, "I love you too." I whispered back. She smiled at me, and then her eyes closed as if she expected what was going to happen.

"Three."

And then a gun was fired.


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

**~~*~~  
>Edward's POV<br>~*~**

_3 months earlier…_

My muscles were aching after waking up from an uncomfortable nights sleep. That, plus the amount of time that I actually had to sleep eventually had its effects on me. I shifted my legs so they moved off of the bed and rubbed my eyes in an attempt to get rid of any other signs of sleep from my eyes.

I looked over to the clock on the nightstand and saw the time. _5:30. Please remind me why you get up at this time nearly every morning._ _Oh yeah, your job!_

I stood up and stretched my arms and legs whilst I yawned. I turned my body back to face the bed to see Bella lying on her side of the bed, the covers at her waist, her head on the pillow was facing me, whilst her brown hair fanned out beside her. She shivered slightly, but I took notice and strode over to her side of the bed and pulled the covers up to cover her small frame.

She moved and I was afraid incase I had woken her up, but her breathing continued at a steady rhythm and I knew she was still in a deep sleep. My hand was still on the duvet, and I watched as Bella subconsciously move her left hand and managed to find mine and hold it within her own.

I sighed as small rays of the early morning light shone through a small gap in the curtains and reflected off of her diamond ring that was on her ring finger. My eyes moved slightly to the gold band that was next to it, a solid symbol to show our everlasting love.

_Some husband I've been._

We had been relatively distant ever since _that _fateful day a few years back, and we just grew further part these past couple of months, this routine had become an everyday thing. I would wake up at half 5 in the morning, work my hardest during the day, do an extra shift in the evening, and then wouldn't return home till around 11 o'clock. But that depended on how things at the station went.

I would spend all day without seeing Bella and it killed me to leave her every morning without hearing her say 'goodbye', and then return home to see her tucked into bed. Occasionally she would stay awake and wait for me, and it just made me feel that more guilty to know the most amount of time we had together as a married couple was perhaps and hour or more before we both fell asleep exhausted from that day.

I leant down and kissed her forehead before I got my shower and got changed. A good aspect of my job is that I can relatively wear what I want. It could be a suit or just jeans and a shirt. Well, it depended on what shirt, but I pretty much had a range of things to wear, rather than the uniform other officers had to wear.

I went downstairs and headed towards the kitchen, preparing a cup of coffee for myself from the coffee pot. As I waited I leant back against the worktop and thought over my current job.

I worked as a detective here in Chicago, and have been for only a couple of years. I am quite young to be a high ranked detective, as I was only twenty-eight, but the other detectives, the ones who promoted me, said they had never seen someone with such determination, skill and knowledge like I had.

I'll admit, I never wanted to be a detective, I never even thought of it as a career choice as I was growing up. But when I was seventeen something happened that changed my mind.

I hadn't even met Bella at that time. I was waiting in my house for my mum to return home from a business trip up in Seattle. I persuaded her to spend an extra day or so there so she could have some more time to herself, and to relax without worrying over me. My dad had died when I was only a couple of months old so I didn't know him, so it was only my mum and I. I was watching television when there was a knock on the door. I stood up to get the door with a huge smile on my face to welcome my mother home, but as I opened it my smile faltered as I saw two police officers standing on the front step. They basically came to tell me that my mother had been murdered up in Seattle, and had been one of the many people who had been killed in a string of attacks over the past month which was alleged to be from some gang up there.

I obviously didn't take it very well. I went into a bit of a depression and I was also told that I would have to live with some guardians until I moved to University. Apparently, the people my mum had chosen for me lived in a small town called Forks, which was a few hours away from Seattle. I couldn't believe that they actually wanted me to go so close to where I knew my mother died.

I decided to live with them anyway. Carlisle and Esme Cullen. I hadn't really heard of them, but apparently Carlisle was my dad's brother, therefore he was my Uncle. I learnt that Carlisle was a Doctor at the local hospital. When I learnt that I decided to watch him work one day, and as I watched him treat his various patients I had a new goal in life. I wanted to be like him, and help those who were vulnerable and suffering. I felt that I needed to repay for something here as I was unable to do anything for my mother.

I focused hard in school to pass the appropriate exams in order to get myself into a good medical school and fulfil my goal.

It was during school where I had met Bella. Our time together in school varied as one day we could be teasing each other, the next we acted like the best of friends. She was one of the main people that helped get me out of my grieving depression. One day I just asked her out on a date, totally out of the blue, and to my surprise she said yes. Things from there progressed, from teasing each other to a serious relationship.

I knew that I loved her quite early on, and that we were meant to be together, even if I was a hormone-controlled teenager and my actions would be usually be seen as stupid. Some of our classmates thought we wouldn't stick together once we went to University, and to be honest I was quite worried myself. But it worked out for us though in the end, as although we went to different universities, we still kept in touch, and occasionally visited each other.

My feelings towards becoming a detective however didn't come to me until one night whilst I was waiting in my dorm. I was listening to some music whilst texting Bella when there was some noise in the hallway. Being curious, I got up and opened the door to see a group of police officers in the hallway heading towards one of the rooms a few doors down from my own.

My heart stopped for a moment as my mind automatically reeled back to the moment a few years earlier when my life changed. An officer infront of me turned to look at me and had told me to go inside. After he had said that the other officers had burst into the other room and went to arrest the person inside.

Apparently, the guy had been selling drugs to some of the people here at the University and he was getting away with it until one girl overdosed and ended up in hospital fighting for her life. Once she had recovered she ended up telling the police the name of the dealer.

It was then when I had an epiphany of sorts. As I watched the guy being dragged away by police, I thought about what I was doing. I was studying to become a doctor. I would be the person to save a girl who had possibly overdosed on a drug, and it would make me feel better knowing that I've helped save another life, and she would hopefully have a new perspective on life. But I felt that I wanted to do more. I wanted to be the person who arrested the dealer who put her in the hospital in the first place. Arrest him so he could hurt no one else in the future.

Yes, as a doctor you could save lives, but it wouldn't stop the crimes that occurred that lead to innocent people being hurt and having their lives saved. But as a police officer, or a _detective_, I could prevent things like that from happening. Another person could be safe because a drug dealer was off the street, or an abusive person was locked away, a murderer was in jail…

I had thought of my mother at that moment, and how her murder had been in a group of killings from a serial killer. I thought how I could be the person to stop things such as gang kills, and hopefully repay the guilt that I felt knowing I was partly to blame for her death.

I informed Bella of my decision just after I properly thought it through, and she was supportive of me as long as it was what I truly wanted. Carlisle said the same thing, more or less, as Bella. He knew my reasons in my decision and said that as long as I was safe, he was ok with it.

Soon after I visited Bella, I asked her to live with me back in Chicago once she finished university. I was overjoyed when she said yes. She still had some time left studying, so I immediately took up the career in becoming an officer, and hopefully work my way up to the top. I was determined to get that place as a detective, as it would fulfil my goal in being able to make a difference to peoples lives in a special, specific way that a doctor can not do.

Soon Bella and I were married; we were so in love that it was what we both wanted in our relationship, and I knew that she was the girl to live the rest of my life with. Not too long after the wedding, Bella discovered she was pregnant. Our first child, and he was taken away from us at such an early age…

The smell of fresh coffee brought me out of my thoughts and my sudden change in emotion as I remembered our son. I pushed past the upsetting feelings and I poured myself a mug, whilst leaving some for Bella. It was one of the things that made me slightly happy knowing I was doing something for her.

I took my cup of coffee with me into my office as I started to grab various things to take with me to the station. Some paperwork…my pager…car keys…I pulled out the top draw of my desk to see my handgun on top of various folders and pieces of paper.

Bella hated me having a gun. She thought it would be more of a risk to me if I was carrying one, and didn't think of the safety side of it that I did. She knew it would obviously help for protection, but that it would most likely draw any unnecessary attention to myself, and making myself more noticeable as a cop. i.e. putting myself in more danger.

I placed the gun in my holster as I made my way back into the kitchen to put my now empty coffee mug into the sink. I ripped a piece of paper from a notebook nearby, and searched for a pen that worked.

This was another of the things that I done for Bella, well I tried to do it as often as I could. Sometimes I would leave a note on the table, nothing overly long, just a brief note maybe saying a little thing that I couldn't tell her as she was asleep. It also meant that she would know if I was doing anything and wouldn't have to be worried over anything.

I saw a pen lying by a bunch of envelopes and picked it up and started writing…

_B_

_Got another stake out tonight so don't keep yourself up. I'll call if anything changes._

_Love you_

_E x_

I sighed and placed the note on the table. It seemed mechanical now, even as I wrote 'love you' on the bottom of the note, it seemed a little bit…forced. I grabbed my jacket from the back of the chair and my car keys and left the house pretending I didn't think of that last thought.

The parking lot was quite crowded this early in the morning, but I guess it was quite necessary on the case we were currently working. It was big, and most of the officers here were working on it, and fortunately for me, I was in charge.

I rounded the corner and went to turn into my usual parking spot when I noticed a silver motorcycle in the middle of the space. I recognised it immediately and laughed to myself as I pulled up alongside it.

The owner of the bike belonged to my partner Jasper. He was a friendly guy, who was exceptionally good at his job. He had this special quality when he was working, that he was able to keep calm and collected on the job, and he somehow passed this feeling onto others, yet if he was facing a suspect, they would somehow cower afraid and tell him what he wanted to know. I didn't know how he done it, and to be honest neither did he, but all he would say was that it came to him when working.

I entered the station and received a bunch of 'hellos' and such as I walked towards my office. I walked into my office to see Jasper sitting lazily in my chair, and he had a look on his face that told me he was tempted to lift his feet up and place them on my desk.

"You parked in my spot." I said whilst pointing a finger at his grinning face.

"I know." He said happily. Infact, happiness was radiating off of him that something must have happened.

"You're extremely happy, what happened?" I asked, whilst motioning for him to get off my chair. He stood up and sighed and walked over to the other side of the desk whilst I sat down in the seat he had been sitting in previously.

"I proposed last night." He started, and pausing for effect.

"Well?" I asked, leaning forward, interested to know. "What did she say?"

Jasper had been dating a woman called Alice for a few years now. She surprisingly was a good friend of Bella's, and it was fun to know that we were connected. She was extremely small and hyper which contrasted with his tall height and calmness, yet they were perfectly matched. He had been waiting to pop the question for a while now…

"She said yes. It's the best thing Edward, I'm so happy and I'm not even married yet."

I stood up from the desk to give him a hug, "Congratulations."

"What are we celebrating?" A voice from doorway asked. I turned my head to see a stocky man, who was probably in his late forties-early fifties. He was wearing a suit and it highlighted his status a bit more. We didn't normally see Chief Taylor as he would normally be in his own office, yet if he was here he must want something.

"Hale here just got engaged." I announced for him, whilst giving him a pat on the back.

"That's great, but don't have the party tonight, or for the rest of this week to be honest with you."

"Why what's happenin'" Jasper asked, his original southern accent coming through his speech.

"Well Cullen you know you're out tonight don't you?"

I nodded and in my mind I mentally added, _not that I really wanted to._ Listening to a wire wasn't the best things in the world.

"Well one of our undercover agents suspect something will happen sometime this week, something that will be solid enough to charge these bastards and allow us to put them behind bars."

"So what's it got to do with us? I do my part of the job properly; we do our shifts, plus the added ones. How come you need us?" I asked, gesturing towards Jasper and I.

"If something happens then I'll need my best men to be there, anything could happen and you two have both knowledge and experience to deal with most situations. So can I count on the two of you?"

"I guess chief." I muttered. Jasper looked like he was unsure but he eventually nodded his head and also muttered a "Yes that's fine."

"Great. I'll catch you two later. Congrats Hale." He left the room whilst Jasper nodded thanks, and the door closed leaving the room in silence.

"Alice won't be happy." Jasper whispered, "She's already planned most of the wedding, never mind the engagement party." He smiled and then headed towards the door, but he stopped and turned back around, "Who's on surveillance with you tonight?"

"Erm…I'm not sure, I don't think anyone has been assigned."

"I'll ask Taylor and see if I can join you."

"Thanks Jasper, I'll catch you later."

"Meet you by my new parking spot." He said as he left, and I laughed quietly to myself.

I switched on my computer and pulled out various case files and folders from the case as I waited for it to load. My eyes caught the small photo frame at the edge of my desk. It had been in the same place for years yet I hadn't moved it from its spot. People try and tell me that it was in the past, but maybe I can't let it go. A picture of the three of us was inside: myself, Bella, and Mason, our son. I quickly forced my eyes away from it and tried to focus on my work.

This specific case I was working on had been studied and processed by dozens of detectives, but no one has yet cracked it. All data and information had to be stored onto a computer as there was far too much paperwork that covered the years in which the case has been looked at.

The problem was we were looking for not one individual, but a group of three of them. It was suspected that there were over a hundred in the higher circles of the gang, and then there were even more that led to those who walked on the streets selling drugs or committing other crimes.

I wasn't sure whether it was one of the biggest in America, but it was estimated that many of the members resided in Chicago.

I looked down onto the pieces of paper were the name of this notorious gang was repeated over and over again.

_**Volturi**_.

The difficulty with these was that in order to stop everything that was linked with this gang, you would have to arrest the supposed leaders. However there had been no evidence that these three men had ever done anything to be charged with a specific crime. They even paid their taxes.

It seemed that it was people lower down that would do their dirty work, and on occasion one may get sloppy and we could arrest that one person. But as I mentioned earlier, there were hundreds.

They liked to work in groups. That way any evidence found at a scene of the crime would be insufficient to charge one person specifically, and also to charge the suspected group.

It was almost impossible to take down the Volturi gang, but we were determined to put them in prison. I was determined even more as it was one of the Volturi gang members that had murdered my mother as a _rite of passage_ in order to move up in the gang. No one knew this however, not even Bella. I would be deemed emotionally involved and would most likely kicked off the case.

My work on the case had only been a few months, well not a few, a bit more than that to be honest. Although I hadn't been working on it, I was well aware of the work that occurred in the station in relation to the Volturi case. At first I wasn't fully interested in the case, and then I spotted my mother's name in a list of dead names of people who may have been killed by the Volturi gang. The police had never told me who was actually behind her death, leaving me completely in the dark.

I started to take an interest in this particular case, and as I watched officer after officer attempt to solve the case, but then fail, I wanted nothing more to take on the case myself.

Some of the other commanding officers didn't believe I was ready to take on a case of this scale, and what the effects would be on me physically and emotionally. I wanted to prove my ability as a detective, and my chance came. I learnt from mistakes I watched other officers make, and I became increasingly close to closing the case.

It was after a few breakthroughs that this case became the forefront of most of the officers here in Chicago. As we got closer and closer to the arrests, time spent on the case increased, and therefore my already distant time spent with Bella decreased to almost nothing.

We found various locations which we suspected were safe houses for the gang. We had no warrant to search the places, but we were led to believe these were significant places from hunches and small pieces of evidence, but they were too small to lead to a warrant. Hence the reason for our surveillance this evening, and most evenings since I have been on this case.

Although most of my time was spent with this case, especially as our number one priority, not all of my nights were spent specifically on this case. It wasn't as though I was needed for every single minute; I did have other things to be doing. And the one thing I was constantly doing was trying to find Mason.

Ever since he was taken away from us, ever since he was _kidnapped_, it was a habit of mine to stay behind a few nights, or come in earlier in the morning so that I can spend time to find out if there was any new information. If there was anything I could do to find my little boy.

As with the murder of my mother, this was another of my secrets. Jasper just thought I was devoted to the case, whilst Bella on the other hand, I couldn't even tell Bella I was doing this. I could imagine how distraught and anxious she would be if she found out I've been trying to find Mason behind her back, how all the bad memories from that time be brought up and be a reminder of what we lost…

It was about five o'clock in the afternoon when Jasper knocked on my door and said "Time to go." I grabbed the essential things; my gun, special ear pieces to keep in touch with the chief or anyone here at the station so we can react quickly if they find anything new, and some sports magazines and more to keep ourselves slightly entertained whilst we kept watch.

We walked past our own vehicles in the parking lot and headed to navy blue ford. It was safer to go with a 'company' car in order to protect ourselves. We didn't opt for a SUV with tinted windows. We wanted to be inconspicuous.

We stopped off to get a coffee and something to eat whilst we were in the car watching. We were going to take the earlier shift so we could finish up at our usual times.

The house we were surveilling wouldn't be thought of anything gang related. It was a house first of all, not a huge warehouse on the outskirts of the city. Instead it was just down the road from a school. I guess it would be clever to hide in a place were they least expect you to be. A group of gang lords staying in a house close to a school in a populated area. You can see were people would have their doubts.

I pulled up on a street that gave us a clear view of the house and anyone about to turn onto that particular street, without us being suspicious. I pulled the lever under my chair and pushed my chair back to give myself more leg room. Jasper done the same and we started our watch on the house in silence.

I eventually broke the silence.

"So what did Alice say about the whole extra shift thing?"

"She's fine with it actually; she moved the party to next week. You and Bella are invited by the way." He said turning his head to give me a smile.

I sighed at Bella's name and Jasper noticed.

"What's the matter? You and Bella having problems?"

"What? No."

"Well something's up, I can tell."

I ran a hand through my hair by habit and answered, "You know since that whole thing with Mason?" I asked him, hoping I wouldn't have to remind him of the details. He thankfully nodded so I continued, "Ever since then we've been distant, it's like we're blaming each other over what happened. Then ever since I started this case, it seems we're even more distant than we used to be. It's just…we haven't spent that much time together, almost any at all for ages, I've been focused on the case, and I'm worried we're going to fall apart."

"And you don't want that do you?"

"No of course not, I love her." Even as I said it out loud, a small part of me was asking myself for reassurance that it was true. I shook my head to clear my thoughts, "I want us to be together, but be together the proper way. Not just knowing you're married and then spending a few hours a day with her. I mean we haven't even had…" I shook my head in embarrassment for telling him this.

"How long?" He asked, no hint of him joking in his voice.

"I don't know, a few months." I waited in silence for him to laugh at it, but instead he answered calmly, and I was thankful for a guy like Jasper for a friend.

"Edward, you need time to be with Bella, just to help your relationship. Ask Taylor if you can get a week off. He'll understand."

"I can't though. Not when we're this close to closing this case, not to mention it'll probably be a shock on Bella if I spring something up on her totally out of the blue." I said, whilst watching a car turn into the street we were watching, but then drive past the house and I turned my attention back to Jasper.

"Edward, you're spending too much time with your job. You can't forget you have a loving wife back home. I don't care what you say but let me speak to Taylor, I'll see if I can get Eric to cover you for a night this week, maybe tomorrow"

"Jasper it's not necessary." I said, whilst I watched him write a reminder on the back of his hand. He didn't answer me back though so I let it drop. We continued watching the house whilst listening to some music.

Nothing interesting happened whilst on watch. Cars passed, and some people walked past the house, but nothing suspicious, so at ten-thirty we called it a night and I drove us back to the station where we collected our vehicles. We said good-bye and then I headed back home.

There only seemed to be one light on when I pulled up into our driveway. I wouldn't be surprised if Bella was up watching television or something, it was only 11pm.

"Bella?" I called out quietly as I entered the house, loud enough she would hear me if she was awake, but not too loud to wake her up if she was possibly asleep. I placed my things in my office and then headed back through the front room were the lamp was on, but there was nobody there. I walked into the kitchen where there was a note on the table. At first I thought it was mine from earlier on in the day, but then I noticed my name on the top and that it was written in Bella's handwriting.

_Edward,_

_Thought that you would be late so dinner is in the oven for you. I'm sorry I couldn't stay up, but I had a long day so I headed to bed earlier. _

_Love you, B._

I looked up from the note to the oven were there was a light on and I could see a plate with tin foil wrapped around it. I smiled at the way she looked after me even though I wasn't here to spend time with her.

After finishing the plate of food Bella made for me I made my way upstairs and to our bedroom. Upon entering, I saw the same scene that I saw earlier that day, except moonlight shone through the curtains and not the early morning rays.

I stripped off my clothes and dressed into my pyjama shorts and climbed into bed next to Bella. I watched her sleep for a while, and before I fell asleep I brushed the hair that had fallen over her face and kissed her forehead before lying down and wrapping my arm around her.

I tried to sleep, yet I couldn't as what Jasper told me earlier was pushed to the front of my mind. I was reminded of the care I received off Bella and I wanted to do something in return. I wanted to show I still loved her after the past few years. I opened my eyes and carefully moved my arm from around Bella and stood up, and headed out to go down to my office, where I hoped to plan a nice evening tomorrow for Bella.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Thanks for reading, depending on the response, I'll decide how quick to update the story.**

**Review, and you'll be able to see a sneak peak of the next chap :)**

**Thanks, Jaimie**


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2  
><strong>

**~~*~~**  
><strong>Bella's POV<strong>  
><strong>~*~<strong>

My feet were already killing me and I had only been shopping for about two hours. That's what you get when you decide to go shopping with my best friend Alice. Yes she is a great friend, and yes she has a great fashion sense, but she is overly enthusiastic when it comes to shopping.

Alice called me this morning, after waking up in an empty bed, _again_, and then made myself breakfast, _alone._ Something was up when I heard her immediately start talking to me down the phone. It wasn't in a bad way, but in a more I'm-more-hyped-up kind of way. She barely took a breath when she spoke to me, and when she finally finished I was able to say hi.

She told me that there was something she had to tell me, and that we should do it over shopping. At first I wasn't so sure, but if she was this excited, and wanted to see me in person, it must be big.

So here I was at the mall, already complaining and trying to find an excuse to stop for at least five minutes.

"This last shop Bella and then we'll get something to eat." She promised as she dragged me to another clothes shop. She was drawn to the clothes almost immediately, like a moth to a flame, and her eyes seemed to pick out a nice piece of clothing almost instantly. Her lack in height she seemed to make up for in energy as well.

"You said that before we went into the last shop." I complained. I wasn't usually the complaining type but I wasn't really in the mood to do anything, let alone shop.

I wouldn't say it was work that was bothering me. I had a job at a local high school teaching both English language and literature. I liked working with kids, but primary school was too easy. I wanted to work my way up to university standard, hopefully for some time in the future, but right now I was fine with what I had. I guess I did usually stress out at school, planning lessons, controlling teenagers, marking homework etcetera, it would usually take some toll on me.

But it wasn't my work life that was getting me down, and it most definitely wasn't my over-active friend who could keep anyone happy, (except me with shopping), but rather one person specifically, and it was in my home-slash-love life.

My gorgeous, caring, considerate, loving husband, who I barely saw within the day. My own husband and I most likely see him once for about an hour every single day, extending that to maybe three hours over weekends. It wasn't because we didn't love each other, and I was sure Edward still cared for me, but it was because of his job, more specifically the current case he was working on.

It never used to be like this, early mornings and late nights. After our situation with Mason we still managed to be civil to each other, we did eat breakfast together, and dined together in the evening, speaking to each other rather than leaving notes on the kitchen counter. But then this new case came along and Edward was adamant that he took it.

At first I was a bit wary. I knew what happened to some of the officers who took this case; it would occasionally be on the news. They would be targeted and attacked, and you may call me selfish, but I certainly didn't want Edward returning home in a body bag.

But the determination in his eyes was there, and I could see that he wanted this case badly. So I agreed and his face lit up so much, I was sure he had ulterior motives.

That was when the earlier mornings started.

When I first woke up I didn't think anything of it, that Edward might have got up because of lack of sleep, or he needed the toilet, something small like that. I walked downstairs expecting to see him drinking a cup of coffee and eating his breakfast, but he wasn't there. He wasn't even in the house.

Figuring he had gone to work I continued with my usual morning routine. But my mind kept thinking back to the empty bed I woke to, and wondered whether that was what it was going to be like from now on. I wasn't thrilled with this new possibility, and in all fairness I didn't want to spend my mornings alone, that was why I enjoyed waking up to Edward so much. It hurt more by the fact he didn't tell me about his change in timetable. When I asked him that night he said that it slipped his mind.

But eventually the mornings alone progressed into evenings alone. This time he did tell me, on a note that he left for me that same morning. I thought that it might just be a small part of the job, but it was night after night, the weekends were all we had together. But soon after the weekends would have him occupied at work.

His extra time at his job just made me think of all the possible situations of why he wasn't actually at work, or infact doing his job. I scolded my insecurity and lack of trust with Edward, believing he wouldn't do anything like that to me.

But one night I decided to wait for him to return home, to voice my concerns about his work and other _insecurities._ I was almost close to disregarding my suspicions when he walked through our front door, but my eyes unwillingly found minute details about his body; his top button undone, his hair seeming a bit more dishevelled than usual, and he looked totally worn out. I immediately came up with the worst conclusions, and the shock on Edward's eyes as he saw me waiting for him, almost made me confirm my fears.

An argument ensued; I was accusing him of having an affair with another woman whilst also complaining on his lack of time away from me and spent on his job, whilst he constantly defended himself, explaining he had a long day and that it was just the job.

But in my own eyes I still focused on the evidence, and although I trusted Edward I found it hard to really believe what he was saying. I stormed upstairs and went to bed, ignoring him for the rest of the weekend. It had taken several more attempts from Edward, and an added confirmation from Jasper, Alice's boyfriend, that working was what he was indeed doing. I apologized for my behaviour and then we went back to normal, well more or less.

So although I no longer doubted what Edward was doing, I still missed his presence in our house, and I missed the time we spent together. So after a few months of this change, I guess you can understand why I am complaining for something as little as shopping.

"Fine." Alice sighed as she turned around and exited the shop. I had the sudden urge to clap my hands in celebration.

We didn't grab much to each but we sat down in the food court. My eyes caught sight of a small family; a mother and her children, looking around for a seat. Seeing a normal family together brought an ache to my heart and a longing for my son. I turned away and looked back to Alice as we sat in a comfortable silence. Well I think it was comfortable, but the constant bobbing of Alice in her seat made me wary.

"You're not telling me something." I said, watching her carefully.

"Really, why would you think that? I'm not doing anything uncharacteristingly of me am I?" she answered quickly, barely catching a breath, and then stuffing a few chips into her mouth.

"Alice," I said slowly, "You're dying to tell me something I can just tell."

"Oh alright," she said, and brought her left hand to brush her short, black hair back. I wouldn't have looked at her hand except at the fact it looked meaningful, and it was then that I caught the glint of something on her hand. A ring to be exact. I pulled her hand across the table to stare at the engagement ring with my mouth open. I couldn't believe I missed it earlier.

"Oh my God Alice he proposed!"

"I know, I know, I know!" She said whilst bouncing happily in her seat and then looking affectionately at the ring.

"When did he propose?"

"Last night. Oh it was so romantic Bella, the setting, the timing, it was just perfect." She said whilst getting this far-away look in her eyes, no doubt thinking about Jasper's proposal.

"Well I'm truly happy for you Alice, I think I did mention to you once Jasper was a keeper."

"Thanks Bella, but listen I know this may seem a little early but I'm already planning everything out, and I was just wondering whether you will consider being my Maid of Honour?"

"I don't have to consider that, of course I will Alice." I said almost tearing up, I got up and gave her a hug for both getting engaged and asking me to be her Maid of Honour. "Thank you." I said.

"The one you should be thanking is that husband of yours; if it wasn't for him I would have never met Jasper." She laughed and I laughed with her, but my happiness didn't continue, and at the mention of Edward I just thought about the time I spent alone, and living my life as if I was single or a widow, and with a missing son.

Alice must have noticed my quick change in mood and looked at me with concern. I shook my head and smiled, "Ignore me; I'm ruining your big surprise." She did ignore what I just said and asked anyway.

"Is something happening with you and Edward?" She asked, being perspective as she stared at me with speculative eyes.

"No, everything's fine, it's just…" I stopped talking, feeling bad for steering the conversation away from Alice's engagement, which was probably the big news she decided to take me shopping for. However she raised her eyebrow for me to continue, "…it's just we spend no time together, not just as a couple but at all. He is constantly working and I know he loves his job, and I know I sound selfish, but I just wish he had a break from it all. He's just been really distant"

"Well I'm sure it's not his intention to leave you alone. He loves you so much."

"But with the way he's been acting it doesn't feel like that at all. It's as though he's being purposefully distant from me. I mean we managed to get though the past few years after what happened with Mason, but over the past few months we say the occasional 'morning', 'goodnight', and 'I love you', but we've spent no time being _us_ you know, having a long chat, just being together in general. I mean this case can't really take that much of his time can it?"

Alice nodded, "I understand what you're saying, well partly. Jasper doesn't work as much as Edward so I can't imagine what you go through. But…" she started, leaning back in her chair and taking a sip of her drink, a mischievous glint in her eye, "…I think things will work out."

I looked at her suspiciously but she just rose from her chair, "Come on, I saw a dress that I think you'll look fab in when we were in that shop earlier." She said quickly changing the subject, and I was quickly pulled from my seat and to the store we were in earlier.

She quickly searched through the racks until she found the dress she was looking for. By the time I walked up to her she was pulling me in the direction of the changing rooms. I walked into an empty stall and Alice passed me the dress and then closed the curtain.

I held up the dress in front of me and my mouth dropped as I looked at the dress.

"Alice…" I called out.

"Yes Bella." She answered innocently.

"I think you don't realize how old I am. I'm not a teenager anymore you know, I don't have the figure you think I have."

I heard her laugh from behind the curtain, "Bella you're twenty-seven and you have a great figure, so flaunt it if you have the chance."

"Like I said Alice I think you have gone a bit crazy and mistaken me for someone else." I said as I held the dress by my index finger, "I can't wear this."

"Bella, Bella, Bella, trust me and try on the dress. I promise you that you will like it."

"I'm holding you on that promise." I said as I got undressed and put on the dress. It fitted perfectly and the material was smooth against my skin. The blue colour seemed to contrast well with the paleness of my skin. It was backless and the dress flowed just above my knees. I smiled in the mirror as I admired the dress, and knew that Alice was right.

"Come on let me see." Alice called and I rolled my eyes before pulling the curtain back.

"I am a genius. I told you didn't I. Now take your hair out and let it hang loose." I did what she said, and tried to run my hand through it to make it look a bit more presentable. She smiled and at first I thought she whispered something mentioning Edward, but I shook my head and ignored it.

"It's perfect." She said, and I nodded in agreement, getting ready to close the curtain whilst reaching for the zipper on the dress. I stopped both when Alice's hand grabbed the curtain stopping me from pulling it.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"I'm changing back, but I prefer it with the curtain closed." I said slowly.

"No, I'm going to see if you can wear it out. Excuse me miss…" she said walking over to an assistant whilst I stood still in the changing room. She came back with a smile on her face telling me to take the dress off so she can quickly pay for it, and then bring it back so I can wear it out.

A few minutes later she passed me back the dress and told me to pass her my other clothes.

"How much was it anyway?" I asked, handing her my jeans, "If that dress costs a lot I'll kill you for spending a lot of money on me."

"Don't worry B, I've got it sorted, now come on we just have to go to a shoe store."

"Alice I can't go out like this, I look like I'm ready to go out for the night, not going shopping in the afternoon."

"It'll be fine, we'll be so quick so one will notice."

I think I counted about twenty people looking at me as we made our way to the last store, I didn't look strange, (well I most certainly hoped I didn't look strange) but I think they were wondering why I was dressed in this way. We bought, well I bought (after a lot of insistence from me) and she picked the shoes that went with the dress. By the time we had finished I was wearing a new dress, new shoes, a new necklace, and Alice had my make-up done and my hair fixed quickly in the toilets.

I had no idea what she had planned and to be honest I was quite nervous, and scared incase it was someone's birthday or something and I had forgot. I sat in her car with my leg bouncing up and down nervously.

"Please Alice will you please tell me what's going on, you're keeping something from me….again."

"It's a surprise." I motioned for her to carry on telling me what the surprise was but she turned back to the road and said, "Also I'm under strict instructions not to tell you. But you'll love it! I think that's all I can really say."

"Ok, ok, I'll wait."

The drive was a couple of minutes long, and at first I thought we were going back to Alice's house, but then I recognised my street. I turned to her wondering what was happening, but we already pulled up to my house and all she said was "I'll see you later. Enjoy" with a big smile on her face.

She drove away with a quick wave and I made my way up to our front door confused, whilst carrying the large amount of bags, and keeping my balance in the high heels Alice chose me. I looked to my right to see Edward's silver Volvo already parked in our driveway, and that just confused me more. I was positive he was working late again.

I entered the house to be met with a wonderful aroma of something cooking in the kitchen, the lights were dimmed and various candles were lit in the hallway, creating a romantic setting.

"Edward?" I called out, placing my bags by the door, "You here?"

I walked further into the house; candles were glowing, and the soft tunes of a calm piano piece were being played through the room. I followed the sound of the music which led to our dining room.

I opened the door slowly and almost gasped at what was infront of me.

The lights at been dimmed and once again candles were glowing around the room, with two larger ones upon the table. The table itself was covered with a white cloth, our more formal plates and cutlery weren't placed on the opposite far ends of the table like you would expect, but rather the seats to the left and right of the end seat, providing the two diners to be closer to each other.

A bouquet of various flowers was centred in the middle of the table. I saw a small note within the flowers so I walked up to the table and looked at the note.

I love you Bella x

My eyes were brimming with tears as I put the note back in its place. A warm pair of arms wrapped around my waist, I smiled and leaned into Edward's embrace. He leant down and kissed my cheek, then moving back to my ear he whispered, "Surprise."

Edward's surprise had left me quite speechless as I looked around at what he had done for me. A tear rolled down my cheek from happiness, but Edward must have taken it the wrong way as he leant back and said quietly, "You don't like it." I turned around in his arms and looked to his face, his eyes were looking down, "I'm sor-"

I pressed my lips to his quickly cutting him off. "I love it." I whispered, looking into his eyes. He smiled at me and leant down to kiss me back. My arms moved around his neck, whilst his remained on my back. I was perfectly content with just kissing him here.

It was as though the past few months didn't matter, as I felt all his love and happiness represented in that kiss. Far too soon he pulled away and he rested his forehead against mine. "Come on, I made dinner." He said quietly, leaning away from me and leading me to the table. He pulled out the chair for me and smiled crookedly at me as he left the room and went to the kitchen.

I was smiling to myself when I heard my phone ring. I frowned a bit, disappointed that we were about to be interrupted, but when I looked at the caller ID I answered with a quick, "You little sneak."

"Nice to hear you too Bella." Alice giggled.

"You knew about this."

"Of course I did silly. It just happened to help that I had my engagement to tell you, otherwise I would have needed some other type of persuasion to get you to come shopping with me. You really had no idea?"

"Not a clue." I answered, looking around once again to what Edward done for me. My eyes caught on Edward walking back into the room with two plates in his hand. I took into account what he was wearing then, he had a dark blue button-down shirt and black pants, the top few buttons of his shirt undone giving him a casual, yet also smart look.

I remembered Alice was on the phone so I stopped staring at Edward, "Alice I've got to go, my dinner's about to be served." I said smiling to Edward.

"Ooh, can I quickly talk to Edward?" I rolled my eyes and held the phone out to him "Is it ok if Alice had a word?" He nodded and took the phone as he sat in his own seat. He didn't say much but listen, added his congratulations on their engagement, then said 'thank you for making my wife look spectacular tonight' whilst looking into my eyes.

I of course blushed under his gaze, still amazed at how he can get that reaction out of me. I think Edward took it into notice as he chuckled and then said bye to Alice. He placed the phone down and then took my hand in his from across the table, "You really look beautiful tonight," he said, looking into my eyes again, "Even if Alice didn't take you out today you would have looked beautiful."

He must have dazzled me as I couldn't form a sentence, but look into his emerald eyes. "You don't look to bad yourself." I managed to get out, and he smiled his crooked smile to me in response. He gestured to the food as he let go of my hand, my body already missing the warmth his hand brought to mine, "Shall we."

It was the first time we had ate dinner together for weeks, and we couldn't help the catching up that we barely done, the things we were talking about ranged from random topics, but it didn't matter as just talking to him made me feel better, plus, the food he had made was really good, and with the added soft tunes of the piano piece was playing in the background, it really set the mood. As I listened carefully I recognised the piece of music.

"Is this the piece of music you wrote?" I asked him and he smiled and nodded his head. "I love this piece. I haven't heard it for so long" I said, leaning back and focusing on the beautiful melody Edward had composed. The small piano we had in the front room had been untouched for a few years now, either he had no time or he just didn't have the interest in music any more. "You know for the whole time we've been together you've never actually told me what the inspiration was for this piece."

"Really? I've never mentioned it." He asked and I shook my head.

"No, I don't think I've asked you either. I just focused mainly on the music itself than what the inspiration was."

"Well," he started, "I saw something beautiful and wonderful, who was an important part in my life, and the music just came to me." He looked into my eyes and moved his hand over to mine, which was resting on the table after finishing my dinner. I was about to ask something else but he motioned to the plates and asked "Finished?"

I nodded and he took both of our plates and took them into the kitchen. "Go to the front room, I'll be out in a second." He called out.

I walked through the door that lead to our front room and almost gasped once again. Candles were also lit in here, and by our couch was a large bowl of popcorn, a neatly wrapped box of chocolates and two wine glasses. I looked over to the television were a stack of a couple of DVDs stood beside the player.

I jumped as I heard a _pop_ from behind me, and turned around to see Edward taking the cork out of a bottle of wine and then moving over to fill the two glasses. He placed the bottle on the table and turned around to face me and was about to say something but I quickly pulled him to me and pressed my lips quickly to his.

I pulled away from him but kept my hands resting on his shoulders. "Thank you." I whispered, "You didn't have to do this." I said, nodding my head at the room so he knew what I meant.

Edward sighed and then looked into my eyes, "Yes I did, I wanted to do this for you."

Without just taking that as a simple answer, I went and asked for more.

"But why?" I said back quietly.

He gently pulled my hand and led me to the couch. He sat down and opened his arm out for me to sit by him. I snuggled close to him but turned my head to look at his face.

"I think you deserve it." He answered, "But also because I think I haven't been treating you the way I think you should be treated." At this he looked down as if ashamed of what he was telling me. "I feel by me working so much, I'm losing the time I should have with my wife." He looked back up to me, "and to be honest I don't want to lose any of that time at all."

He leant down to kiss me again, and it lasted for several moments until he pulled away and leant his forehead against mine. "I love you so much." He whispered

"I love you too." I replied and I leant back slightly. "But Edward, you didn't have to do all of this. As long as you are here, with me, then I couldn't be happier." He smiled and hugged me, kissing the top of my head. And then we settled in for an enjoyable night, one that I hadn't had in months.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Thanks for reading, please review :) will give you a little sneak peak of chap 3 if you do :)<strong>

**Jaimie xxx**


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3  
><strong>

**~~*~~  
>Bella's POV<br>~*~**

I rolled over in my bed with a huge smile on my face. Last night had been wonderful and I was extremely glad that Edward decided to surprise me; and this is coming from someone who doesn't like surprises so much.

I outstretched my hand hopefully to reach Edward, but all I felt were the bed sheets. My smile quickly turned into a sad frown as I realised he had left for work again.

_Typical._

Last night had been so perfect, and I hated the fact it had to be ruined by mornings such as these, waking up alone. I pulled the sheets closer to myself as I sat forward and got ready to get out of bed.

"Ah ah." I heard a voice call, and I turned to see Edward standing by the bedroom door holding a tray with a plate of food on it. The smile on my face when I saw him was instantaneous.

"I thought we could eat in bed this morning." He said walking over and placing the tray on the bed. I moved into a more comfortable position to eat. Edward sat next to me and took a piece of toast that was on the tray, along with my favourite omelette that he makes me.

"Edward don't you have work?" I asked. I loved the fact he was with me, but I didn't want him to get into trouble for it.

"Nope. Jasper texted me this morning, he said he spoke to my boss and that it's sorted." He leant forward and kissed me, "I'm yours for the rest of the day."

"Mmm, sounds good to me." I said kissing him back, "Did you have anything planned?"

"Maybe we'll go to the city. Have lunch out, walk along the seafront. But it's up to you."

"I'm fine with anything." I answered whilst eating a piece of the omelette and moaning in satisfaction when he managed to make it perfectly.

"Good huh?" He teased.

"No it's vile and disgusting, and I don't want you to make it for me ever again." I said, but contradicting myself as I ate another piece of the omelette.

"Sure. I'm just going to get a quick shower." He said, getting up and making his way to our en suite.

I finished my breakfast just as Edward walked out of the shower, with a towel around his waist, and his body slightly wet from getting out of the shower. I couldn't help but stare at him as he walked around the room, watching the way his muscles in his arms and back moved when he reached for something.

"See something you like?" He teased, knowing he had caught me staring.

"Yes, that towel you have wrapped around you is great isn't it, bought it in a sale." I answered back smartly, and laughing when I saw his reaction.

I quickly jumped up and made my way into our bathroom before he could do anything and had a quick shower.

After a smart remark on how great _my_ towel was from Edward, and getting dressed with my hair dried and a touch of make-up on my face, we were both getting into Edward's Volvo and driving into the city.

We teased each other over what music we should put on the radio; he wanted a bit of classic rock whilst I felt like listening to a bit of Indy music, but in the end we just put it on a classical station. Other people would probably not think of Edward and I as listeners of classical, yet it was something we both liked, especially as Edward would like to play the calming pieces of _Debussy_ and such on the piano. It created a calm, comfortable atmosphere in the car as we drove into town.

"I heard there's this great new Italian place, we could stop there for lunch afterwards."

"Sure, that's fine." I said as he turned a corner and managed to find a parking space.

After walking around for a bit, we went to the restaurant and the way we were, well it was just like it was before. We laughed and he held my hand over the table. He ignored the flirtatious waitress whilst I glared at her. And once again it seemed like the past few years of distance and anguish barely happened.

It was past three o'clock when we left the place, the annoying waitress said that they needed our table for other customers, bearing in mind we were only chatting, not eating.

We didn't get back in the car, instead Edward wrapped his arm around my waist and we walked towards the lake.

We walked for a few minutes before Edward pulled my hand and led us to stand by the railings.

"I wish we could do this more often." He said softly.

"Which? Walking along the lake or _this_ in general?" I asked.

"In general, just being with you." He said and he leaned down to kiss me.

Just as our lips were about to touch, his phone started to ring in his pocket. He closed his eyes in frustration and stepped back, fishing in his pocket for his phone. When he pulled it out I watched his expression change, from anger to worry as he looked down to the caller ID.

"I'm sorry Bella I have to take this." He said, and walking away from me so he could speak to whoever it was more privately.

I stayed leaning against the rails as I watched him talk on the phone. He had moved too far away for me to hear what exactly was saying, but I could see that something was bothering him.

When he pulled the phone away from his ear to end the conversation, his body slumped and his head bowed down as though he was unhappy with whatever they had asked him on the phone.

He started to make his way back to me slowly; his phone was still in his hand.

"I have to go." He said as he reached me.

"Why? Who was it?"

"It was work," he answered, and I already felt the anger within me knowing we couldn't even have one full day without being interrupted, "Taylor wants me back quickly, he says there's something wrong."

"Oh, alright." I said, but I could hear the disappointment in my voice. "Well you better get going, don't want to disappoint him now do you." I said, and I had meant it to be said normally, but even I could hear the anger in my voice. I turned away from him so he couldn't see the tears forming in my eyes.

"I'm sorry Bella." He whispered, leaning forward to give me a kiss, but I didn't turn to face him so he settled for kissing my cheek. "Do you want me to give you a ride back home?"

"No I'm ok, I was thinking of doing some shopping anyway." I lied. I didn't want to be dropped off because for the whole drive back I would be constantly thinking of how he has to put his work over me sometimes, and how it saddens me to be left alone in an empty house. At least walking around and occupying myself with something might distract me from thinking those things.

"Alright then, I'll see you tonight." He said, before turning around and walking away from me, just as a single tear fell down my cheek.

**~~*~~  
>Edward's POV<br>~*~**

When I had looked down and realised Taylor was calling me, I knew something was wrong. Either something had happened with the case and I was needed back immediately, or, I was in trouble.

As I drove back to the station, my thoughts varied between two things.

One was to do with the case, and I was sure nothing would have happened that would need me back so quickly, and that also I was thinking back over my actions, and wondering if any of them had put me into trouble.

The second was Bella. I could see how it hurt her when I left her for work.

Last night had been great, and from just spending that time with her, it really showed me how much I haven't seen her, how I haven't treated her as well as a good husband should.

_Would someone else treat her better than I?_

I shook my head immediately to clear those thoughts, quite shocked with myself that I had actually considered it.

I pulled into my spot at the car park at the station, got out and made my way through the halls of the building to get to Taylor's office.

He didn't actually tell me what was wrong over the phone, hence the worrying over what may have happened, but instead told me to 'get my ass down to the station now, and meet me in his office.'

I saw Jasper on my way to his office, and his eyes widened when he saw me. What was he so shocked about?

"What are you doing here?" He mouthed to me from across the room.

I nodded my head in the direction of the Chief's office. "Taylor." I mouthed back and continued to walk.

I reached his office and took a deep breath before knocking.

"Come in."

I opened the door slowly, and saw him sitting behind his desk, but as soon as he saw me enter, he stood up quickly and his expression turned murderous. I knew he was one for getting angry quickly, but I must have done something bad to get him like this.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"Excuse me Sir?" I asked, confused at why I was being shouted at.

"Don't act innocent Cullen; you know perfectly well that you can't just skip work whenever you please. Especially with the Volturi case. I picked you to take over because I didn't count you as a slacker Cullen, but if you can't handle things I could easily pass it on to another officer."

"No Sir, I'm handling things perfectly well with this case, and I am certainly not slacking. Please Sir you can't take the case away from me."

"I don't want to Cullen, but you know what my reaction is when officers make their own free time during working hours."

"Taylor, I still don't understand what I've done."

He opened his mouth to answer me, but there was a rapid knock on the door. "Wait a few minutes." He called out, but the door opened anyway and Jasper stepped into the room.

"Hale, can't you ask me whatever you want to ask me later?"

"Sorry Taylor, but it's to do with Edward." He said, with a nervous glance between me and Taylor.

"Go on."

Jasper walked forward a bit more so he was standing next to me. "Edward believed he had some time off."

"And why was that?"

"I had texted him earlier this morning to say that I had asked you to give permission for Edward to have the day off."

"I distinctly remember telling you no Hale." Taylor said sharply, and I looked to Jasper in shock.

"Yes I know, but I lied to Edward because I know he needs the time to sort some problems he's having at h-"

"So you purposefully went against what I had said Hale." Taylor stated, his voice rising.

"Yes, and I apologise."

"Apologies are no good Hale; you went against the orders of a superior officer, even if it was something as simple as asking for some time off." He turned to me. "And you had no idea?"

I opened my mouth to say some sort of a lie so Jasper wouldn't take on all the blame and punishment he was sure to receive, but Jasper spoke before me.

"He knew nothing of what I was doing Taylor, I don't think he should receive any punishment."

"Well that's not your decision to make." He answered back, but he looked to me. "I'll let you go Cullen, but consider this a warning incase you think of doing something like this again. Now get back to work, I want you doing a late shift tonight, no questions." He dismissed, and I nodded my head and turned to leave, taking one last look to Jasper, surprised at what he had done for me.

"Hale stay here for a moment, I'm not finished with you." I heard Taylor say before I shut the door and made my way to my own office.

I still couldn't believe Jasper had done that. He must have known the risks and the punishment he could receive if Taylor would have found out, which evidently he did. Just because he wanted to help sort things out between Bella and I?

It had been ten minutes before I heard a knock on my own door and Jasper walked in.

"Before you say anything," he started, "I don't regret what I done. I thought it was necessary that you and Bella spend more time together, because frankly Edward, Alice and I are getting a bad feeling that something bad will happen between the two of you."

"Jasper, I'm happy that you're looking out for my relationship, but you didn't have to risk your job by doing it. What did he say?"

"Well he let me explain why I did it; he's just deciding whether I should be suspended for a few days or work non-stop instead. I'll find out soon though."

"I'm sorry. I feel like it's my fault that you done this."

"Well I don't, so leave it at that. Just know that you won't be alone on you're late shift tonight."

I nodded to him as he left my office and left me alone to work, keeping my thoughts focused on the task in hand, and not my best friend's lies, or the wife who will be alone again tonight.

**~~*~~  
>Bella's POV<br>~*~**

Shopping didn't help me at all. I gave up on it and I managed to get a taxi home, and arrived just after seven. I couldn't be bothered cooking so I grabbed a menu from the kitchen shelf and ordered a pizza.

I poured myself a drink and settled down on the couch, switching on the television on the usual channel that I watched at the same time every week.

When Alice had caught me watching this the first time, she knew immediately what I was waiting for, and told me to switch it off because it would just make things harder on myself. However, I knew I couldn't risk missing an episode just incase _his_ story came on.

Recently, a new show aired on the television which reminded people of some crimes that had occurred, and they were unable to catch the criminal, hoping that the general public would know some more information that would help them catch who they wanted.

I remember watching it the first time, just because nothing else was on, but then something caught my interest.

For one entire episode, something they do twice a week, they dedicated it to finding people who had been missing for a certain amount of time, whether it was adults, teenagers or children. As soon as I saw it I knew I had to watch it.

Seeing it as an opportunity, I wrote to the program telling them about our situation, about what happened with Mason, and see if they could do anything to help.

Each week I watched the programme, having the slightest hope that they would show our story, that they would try and get more of the public to help find our child.

But each week I just thought it was a lost cause. I didn't know if the police or the producers had to have contact with me, or something to show they were going to air the story.

So today, like any other time, I didn't expect them to show it. No one had called up the house and asked us any questions so I thought today would be like any other week.

The programme was half-way through by the time the pizza arrived, and Edward still wasn't home so I accepted he was going to have to do another late night.

The break had come on before the final quarter of the show, and still the story had not shown up. I did try to reason with myself that they would want to try and find the more recent cases, bearing in mind ours was closing up to five years.

My phone rang besides me, and I stretched to pick it off the table. But just as I went to accept the call, I saw the name _Alice_ flash on the screen. I debated answering it, knowing that if I did she would probably question me about if I was watching the show, and then continue to tell me off. Yet it could just be for a normal chat, but a part of me didn't want to risk missing the rest of the show.

I quickly pressed the ignore button, and threw it besides me as the show came back on.

My face fell when I saw that they were continuing to talk about a young girl who was taken a few days ago. I sighed and reached for the remote, about to switch it off when something stopped me in my tracks. I turned the volume up and sat on the edge of my seat.

"_The police suspect that this isn't the suspect's first victim. Similar cases to Rachael's have been reported for the last five years, the earliest, and what police believe to be the first victim, was with three year old Mason Cullen."_

My heart stopped and my hand covered my open mouth in shock when they said his name, followed by a picture of him, a picture we had supplied to the police all those years ago.

A tear rolled down my face as I saw his photo on the screen, his face was filled with happiness, a huge smile spread across his face. His coppery hair was messy, and a few strands fell infront of his brown eyes.

When the picture left the screen, it showed images of the park he was taken from. My heart pained in my chest as the memories were preparing to break through.

Next they brought up some of the interviews that some of the media had with Edward and I, when we pleaded with whoever had taken our child to return him to us.

As I watched the various images flicker, including a specially made photo of what Mason could look like today, it caused me to break into sobs, with tears continuing to stream down my face, and my heart constricting painfully in my chest.

I vaguely heard the house phone ringing, and the presenter saying their telephone number on screen incase anybody wanted to call with information. But I wasn't focusing on them, but rather keeping the painful memories at bay, knowing that if I remembered them I would end up having a breakdown of sorts.

I don't know how long I sat on the couch crying, until I heard a loud knock on my front door.

"Bella are you inside?" I heard Alice call, as she continued to knock on my door.

I stood up quickly, trying to wipe my eyes so the tears weren't present, "Yeah Alice, one sec."

"Thank God," I heard her say behind the door, "You wouldn't answer your phone; I needed to check something with you."

I took in a deep breath to help calm myself down and then opened the door.

She took one look at me, and was immediately worried. As soon as she opened her mouth however, the presenter on the television was closing the programme, and I could tell from Alice's expression that she knew what I was watching. She looked at the state I was in and quickly enveloped me in a hug.

"I'm so sorry Bella," she whispered in my ear as I resumed crying into her shoulder, "I was hoping you would have missed it."

I continued to cry into her shoulder until I felt her move. It was then I remembered we were still standing at the front porch with the door still open.

"Come on, let's get you inside." She said, pulling away from me so she could close the door, and take us both into the living room.

I sat down on the couch and she sat next to me. I started to get upset again and she quickly comforted me in a hug.

"Where's Edward?" She asked me quietly, only taking notice now that he wasn't here to comfort me.

"Work." I answered simply.

I thought I heard her sigh, but ignored it.

"Do you want to talk about it?" She asked me gently; as if she was worried I might cry even harder by asking.

"It's just brought up memories, that's all." I said, my sobs had stopped, but a single tear would roll down my face, and I still sniffled every few moments. I was sure that I had drenched Alice's shirt with my tears, but she just continued to rub her hand up and down my back soothingly, taking no thought into the fact I had probably ruined her shirt.

When I thought that I had calmed myself down enough, I sat back up and wiped my eyes, taking in a deep breath to help.

"You alright now?" She asked and I nodded, "Are you sure you don't want me to stay?"

I shook my head, "No, go home. Edward will be here soon and Jasper will be waiting for you. I'll be fine."

She looked wary on her decision to leave, but eventually she stood up and hugged me one more time before saying goodbye.

Just as she reached the front door however, I called out to her. She stopped and turned back to me.

"Thank you, for being here." I said, grateful that I wasn't alone during my little breakdown.

"Don't worry about it Bella. I'm here okay." She smiled at me and went to leave but I quickly called out again.

"Do you think…that maybe…you know…that they'll be able to find him?" I managed to stutter out, "I mean…it has been nearly five years."

"I'm not sure Bella." She said, but quickly added, "I'm sure that the police will find him."

"Well what if…no never mind." I shook off, hoping she wouldn't ask the thought that I had just banished from my mind.

"What is it Bella? You can tell me."

"I can't, it's terrible, you would think I was a horrible mother." I whispered, looking down ashamed of what I had thought.

"Bella, you can trust me."

I looked up to her and sighed, "Do you think that…because it's been so long…to save his suffering…it would probably be for the best if he…" I took a breath in, "…if he was already…" I shook my head and felt another tear fall down my face as I couldn't even say the word that I was thinking.

Alice understood though, and her face was full of sympathy. "Maybe." She answered, "I've heard stories that many parents would rather know that their child was…you know, rather than missing, just so they would know where they are. But Bella I know that kid and that as young as he was he was a little fighter."

I nodded to her, quite thankful that she wasn't causing me to put all my hopes into this, yet reassure me at the same time. She said goodbye one last time and then left the house.

I spent no time making my way upstairs into my room and getting changed, hoping I would have less time alone with my thoughts, and that by going to sleep I wouldn't have to face all the memories of the pain I had for the past five years.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Thanks for reading, here's a new chap as a Xmas present :P Proper excited at the moment as well as I'm going to see Paul McCartney tomorrow! <strong>

**Anyways, I hope you all have a Happy Christmas, and hopefully the next update will be just in 2012 so I wish you a happy new year as well.**

**Review and you can get a sneak peak of chapter 4 :)**

**Thanks  
>Jaimie xx<strong>


	5. Chapter 4

**Happy New Year everyone :) lets start the new year with a new chap :)**

**Chapter 4  
><strong>

**~~*~~**  
><strong>Bella's POV<strong>  
><strong>~*~<strong>

It was the weekend after, and it was Alice's and Jasper's engagement party. Somehow she managed to pull together a party in a short amount of time and people were actually able to go. To some people, just the words 'Alice' and 'party' had them there.

There was no denying that Alice's parties were fantastic. Perhaps 'fantastic' was an understatement. Our school prom after party had her house transformed into a club, and my wedding, although I had to cut back on some of Alice's ideas, was absolutely perfect the way she designed it. There was no doubt her own would be a spectacle to be seen. I just feel sorry for Jasper.

It still amazed me that she was still able to organize a party, to her scale, on such short notice. Only Alice could.

The party wasn't until six o'clock; the school I worked in was off for a week as it was on a short break so I had no work to mark or plan since I had already done it, Edward had left for work at nine this morning, so he wasn't here. It was a Saturday, at 12pm, and I was already bored.

I sighed and contemplated about what I could do. I would clean the house, but it was relatively clean already, and there wasn't much washing to do. I wasn't the type of person to go shopping as a time consumer either; normally I'd do it if I needed something.

I was feeling quite hungry, and my rumbling stomach agreed that maybe I should make myself something to eat. Maybe I make something for Edward as well, go down to the station and surprise him. Jasper normally tells me he's so busy to go down to the little kitchen the station had and make something, or buy food off the sandwich lady that comes in around ten.

With my mind set, I went into the kitchen and started to prepare what I needed, and it didn't take long to make two sandwiches and a potato salad to go with, just in case he was extra peckish.

I put everything into a paper bag and headed to the station hoping Edward didn't mind my visit.

It had happened before, when I'd come down the station unexpectedly and he wasn't even in his office, but in some important meeting with some senior officers. Anyway, someone complained that they didn't like a person like me (in other words, someone who wasn't a cop), sitting in Edwards office unsupervised when there were important case files and other information that I could easily take.

I didn't know who they thought I was, but Taylor had to pull Edward out of the meeting to quickly speak to me, and apparently they wouldn't wait for him to return to the meeting, so they carried on and he supposedly missed some really important stuff.

Edward was angry. I wasn't sure whether it was specifically at me or just angry at the whole thing in general. When he got home we had an argument, I apologised for making him miss his meeting, then he apologised for shouting at me, and said he was happy I had come to surprise him. Just the timing was slightly off.

I had never done that again; visiting without notice. I usually called or text him to ask him if he was free or if he didn't have much work to do. But after the night he planned for me I thought maybe it would be alright, and I know my small lunch isn't as extravagant, but hopefully he would see it as thoughtful.

I was glad to see that the guy on reception was one I usually spoke to, and knowing I was Edward's wife, he let me straight through knowing I was only coming in for lunch.

I walked through the corridors towards Edward's department (it was a big building) and nodded to officers who I knew until I got to the large main room.

Here, the middle was filled with officers working on desks, who hadn't been fortunate to be given the specific status to have an office. These offices were the outline of the main room, and Edward's was all the way across the room on the other side.

I passed the various desks on my way to Edward's office, and was happy to see a familiar, russet coloured, super-tall man make his way towards me, a huge smile spread across his face, with his perfect white teeth showing. I waved to him to show him I saw him and also walked towards him.

Jacob Black was a family friend of mine from years ago when I lived up in Forks. I hadn't seen him for years until I came to visit Edward here at the station a few weeks earlier and we bumped into each other. I hadn't recognised him at first, but somehow he knew immediately who I was, and tried to help me remember that we used to make mud pies when we were little.

Eventually I started to remember who he was. Billy Black, his father, used to be great friends with my dad. Although I did know the Blacks, I associated more with Jacob's older sister who was the same age as me. Occasionally I would see Jacob when I would visit their house, or if Billy and the kids came to our house for dinner. I wouldn't say we were the best of friends when we were little, but apparently Jacob totally admired me; well that's what my dad said but I didn't believe him.

As we got older we did keep in touch, but it wasn't that regularly, and by the time I was in my senior year of school and preparing to go to college, our small friendship just seemed to fade away and we barely talked at all.

So I was surprised to see him here in Chicago, older and having lost the childish aspects from his looks, his muscles were toned and his previously long hair had been cropped short and I won't deny that he was certainly good looking. His personality hadn't changed one bit, and he still managed to make me smile with his contagious happiness.

"Hey Bella." He said, pulling me into a hug, "What are you doing here? I know I'm hard to stay away from but you could have called me first." He teased, smiling at me again.

I lifted the bag with mine and Edward's food in, "Surprise lunch for the husband."

His eyebrows furrowed, "I still haven't figured out who it is."

Somehow, after a few weeks of working here, Jacob had still not figured out who my husband was. At first I laughed at him when he first told me that, but he really didn't know so it became a bit of a challenge for him to realise I was married to Edward.

In fairness, although they were in the same department, I don't think Edward had worked with Jacob yet, since Jasper is his usual partner, so unless they wanted to have an in-depth conversation about their lives at the water-cooler, Jacob was just going to have to guess.

"Well you'll still have to work it out then won't you?" I teased.

He looked over my shoulder and nodded at someone I couldn't see, "It's not fat Joe is it?" I turned around and saw immediately who he was talking about, 'Fat Joe' the cleaner. Edward had told me they made the name up for him, Joe's not even his real name but they think it suits him better, plus he said he would never realise it was him if they called him Joe behind his back.

"No it's not fat Joe." I laughed and turned back around to Jacob.

"Damn. Although I have to say I am pretty relieved." He looked back down to face me, "Well, I need to fax some things otherwise I would follow you and find out who your husband was."

"Oh well, I'll see you later then Jake." I said as I gave him another hug.

"See you Bells." He said and then walked away and turned onto a corridor so I could no longer see him. I waited a few more seconds just to see if he was actually gone, and as I guessed a few seconds later I saw his head peer around the corner to look for me. He saw me and I waved at him innocently as he turned back around disappointed.

I then made my way to Edward's office, knocking first before entering.

He was busy working to realise it was me who had walked in. Files were placed all over his desk, and he was staring intently at the computer screen as he typed.

"Hey Hun." I greeted him as I walked in. His eyes lifted up from the screen and met mine, smiling at me and then said hi back.

"What are you doing here?" He asked as I walked around his desk as he stood up, and kissed him chastely.

I lifted up the brown bag with our food in, "Lunch."

"That's great, I'm starved. I've been working non-stop in here all day."

"Edward you need to take a break from all of this."

"I can't, it's just this case I'm working on. I need to do what I can quickly."

He sat back down in his chair as he took out a sandwich from the bag, placed it on a napkin then turned back to the computer. I sat down in one of the other chairs on the other side of the desk and watched as his sandwich continued to lie untouched on his desk.

I waited a few more moments to see if he would eat it, but he continued to look back and forth between the files on his desk to the computer.

I ignored it for now, thinking that Edward would eat it in his own time. _Even though he just said he was starved._ I took a bite out of my sandwich as I watched him work.

"Do you know Jacob still doesn't know I'm married to you?" I asked him trying to make conversation.

"Black?"

"Yeah, he hasn't realized yet."

"Huh, isn't he stupid." He said, and continued to type on the computer, effectively cutting short the conversation.

I leaned back in my chair; just a little bit angry he was pretty much ignoring me while I was here. I mean I would feel better if he would at least eat his lunch, but that still lay untouched.

There was a light knock on the door, and I turned around in my seat as a young girl walked in, with a bright smile on her face, and a skirt that I would personally say was a bit short to be wearing here. "Hi Edward, I'm not interrupting anything am I?" She asked, glancing down to me.

"No of course not," Edward said, to my surprise, "What is it?"

I've got those sheets you wanted." She said, walking around me and the desk, practically ignoring I was here, and giving him the papers.

"Thanks. Hey have you met Bella?" He asked her, as though in reminder that I was in the room.

"No I haven't," she said as she shook hands with me, "nice to meet you."

"Yes, well I'm his wife." I quickly added, internally cringing to how that must have sounded to her, but since Edward forgot to mention it, I had to tell her he was taken. And watching as the smile on her face quickly turned into a frown, before it was masked quickly with a false smile, I knew immediately what her intentions were.

"Well, I've got to do some other things, I'll see you later Edward." She said with a smile and a wave. She turned around, looking at me briefly and saying a quick 'bye' and then leaving his office.

I looked back at him amused (but secretly angry) and raised an eyebrow. He saw my expression and sighed, "Just ignore her, everyone else does." He said then turned back to the computer.

"What? So she crushes on everyone then?"

"Uh huh." He answered shortly, now returning to the shortly-cut conversations, and also dismissing the fact this girl seems to hit on all the single male staff at the station, plus the married ones. Am I the only one who finds that a problem?

"You haven't forgotten about Jasper and Alice's engagement party have you?"

"Oh that's tonight isn't it? What time is it supposed to start, Seven? Eight?"

"Six." I corrected, "Edward you're Jasper's best man, it would be nice if you could be there on time."

"No problem, I'll see what I can do."

"Thanks." I said, taking another bite of my sandwich, and was glad to see Edward take a bite out of his for the first time.

We remained in silence for a bit. The only sounds in the room were the sounds of the keys on the keyboard being typed, papers being shuffled around, or us chewing on our lunch.

"Look Bella," Edward said, stopping from his work, "I'm just really busy right now, I feel like I'm keeping you bored in here doing nothing, and I would talk to you except I have all this work and-"

"It's fine Edward." I interrupted, "I understand, you're busy. I've got to leave now anyway, I have things to do." I lied quickly.

Edward stood up and made his way around the desk, "I'm sorry I have this work to do, and I'll try and get out of work for the party." He apologised, wrapping his arms around me and kissing me.

"I'll see you later then." I said, giving him another quick kiss and leaving the office.

It was quarter to six and Edward wasn't home.

I had changed over an hour ago, after getting a shower and doing my hair and make up, expecting us to leave a bit early in case I could help Alice with anything.

I swore I told him we had to be there for six. Someone else's party I can perhaps understand, but this was Alice and Jasper we were talking about, our best friends, not some work colleague that we barely speak to, or a distant friend.

I huffed, taking another glance at my watch, and just decided to head over there now. Depending on the traffic, the trip could sometimes take up to three quarters of an hour.

I quickly scrawled a note to Edward, telling him I had already left, grabbed my purse and then got into the truck. It would have been nice to leave together, and in honest truth, my loud truck wasn't the fanciest thing to pull up to a party.

Fortunately, the rush hour traffic had died down and the roads were pretty much clear, so it only took about twenty five minutes to get to Alice's, and it was probably a good thing I left when I did, because I forgot about finding a decent parking space.

Even though it was early, there were a lot of cars already parked along the road for Alice's party, and I was lucky I managed to find one close to their house.

I grabbed the gift Edward and I had bought them and got out the truck, adjusted my dress and then made my way to the house.

Alice had already opened the door before I had got to the porch, "Bella!" She squealed. Even though she was the same age as me, she was still a teenager at heart. Especially when it came to a party. "I'm so glad you could come." She smiled as she hugged me.

"I wouldn't have missed it." I said, "Sorry, I would have been here earlier to help you, but I was waiting for Edward."

"Why? Where is he?" She asked as she pulled back and peering past my shoulder to see if he was coming up behind me or still in the car.

"Erm…work? I think, I told him to be here though."

"Oh well, he's going to miss all the fun." She joked, and was pulling me into the house. "Jazz! Bella's here!" She called up the stairs as we passed it in the hall. "There's only a few here at the moment," she said to me, "there's a few girls from work coming, neighbours, family and all that, have a drink and a chat, and if you get bored, well I don't know how it happened because this party is going to be awesome." She smiled and whizzed off when the doorbell rang.

I shook my head at Alice's hyperness already, and the party had barely started. I went over to where there was a bunch of gift bags and cards so I placed mine and Edward's gift along with them.

The weather was nice enough that people congregated outside in the garden, Alice seemed to have a table set up with a few drinks on, and a gazebo up with an outdoor sofa and an outdoor heater.

"Hey Bella." I heard a voice from behind me and I turned to see Jasper.

"Hey, congratulations you." I said to him and hugged him. I hadn't seen him since Alice had actually told me about her engagement.

"Why thank you, hardest thing I've done in my life."

"Jasper, the hardest thing in your life will be trying to control your fiancé whilst she plans this wedding."

He laughed and shrugged his shoulders, "If it makes her happy then I don't care."

"Aww, aren't you sweet." He smiled and looked down bashfully. It was funny how someone shy like Jasper could keep hold onto someone active like Alice.

"Come outside, I want to introduce you to a few friends of mine from Texas, they came to Chicago for a break and when I told them I was engaged they stayed a few extra nights to come to the party."

"That's nice." I smiled, and we walked over to the gazebo where Jasper introduced me. We both sat down and Alice soon came outside and joined us, sitting on Jasper's lap, and whilst more people came and the party really got started, I was content sitting outside having a laugh whilst his friends told me stories about Jasper that I didn't even know about.

I didn't know how long it had been, but Alice popped her head outside the door and said, "Bella, Edward's here."

"What time is it?" I asked one of the guys on the couch.

"Few minutes past eight." One answered, and I sighed.

"Excuse me guys." I said, as I stood up and went inside trying to find him, but it wasn't too hard as I spotted him quickly by Jasper's table of liquors.

I took a breath in to calm my bubbling anger and strode up to him.

"Where've you been? I thought you said you would get here on time."

"I did, it started at eight didn't it?"

"It was at six." I growled, careful not to raise my voice and not cause a scene, "I told you all this earlier today Edward, I thought you were listening!"

He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose whilst continuing to pour the drink with his other.

"Bella, please, can we not do this now?" He asked.

"Sure Edward, we'll leave it when we're together, when will that be Edward?" I asked sarcastically, and turned away from him.

He grabbed my wrist and turned me back around. "Look Bella, I'm sorry, it's just that work has been stressful, and I would have been here earlier but Taylor needed to keep me behind because Jasper asked to finish early."

"Didn't you think of saying that you have to be in the same place as Jasper and get off a bit early as well?"

"I couldn't have, ever since I accidently skived off work the other day, Taylor has wanted me to get more overtime as a result."

"Well I'm sorry that an enjoyable day together has put you under more stress Edward, really, I am truly sorry." I said in anger at him and turned back around again, Edward not bothering to stop me this time.

We barely spoke for the rest of the party. I barely saw him. It was such a change from previous times. Stealing glances from across the room, saving each other from boring, awkward conversations from someone we barely knew. Practically latched onto each other's sides.

He stayed with some of his colleagues from work, occasionally speaking to Jasper and Alice, and some of their family whom we haven't seen in ages.

It was pretty much the same as me. When he wasn't speaking to Alice and Jasper, I was, and if I wasn't, I was sat outside under the gazebo and the little radiator talking with everyone.

I noticed he stayed indoors a lot, and I mustn't have looked good as when Alice came out she mouthed to me 'Are you alright?' and I quickly smiled and said I was fine so she smiled back and went somewhere else.

It had only been about two hours and the air was considerably colder, so people were either inside or gathered under the heater in this gazebo.

I was on the outdoor couch, huddling close to a small flame that Jasper made in the centre, just talking quietly when I saw Edward walk out of the house, and he had his phone to his ear. Who would be calling him at this time of night?

"No it's alright I can hear you now, what were you saying?"

I closed out the conversation that was around me and tried to listen to what Edward was saying.

"Uh-huh…I'll be straight down." And with that he ended the call and turned around and his eyes met mine.

I knew immediately that it was work, I didn't have to ask, and I could tell from Edward's guilty face that he didn't have to tell me where he was about to go. I just shook my head and turned my back on him, not believing that whatever it was, he couldn't have just asked to be told about it in the morning.

I wasn't surprised that he never said goodbye to me, and I wasn't particularly that bothered, he could tell I was mad at him for leaving the party.

I couldn't enjoy the rest of the party, just knowing him ditching the party, his general behaviour of the party just spoilt it for me, and it wouldn't be fair on Alice to sit here and drown in my sorrows whilst she was having fun.

I got up from the chair and went inside, and I saw Jasper in the kitchen pouring more ice into a bowl and putting some drinks into it.

"Hey darlin', everything alright?" He asked, as he moved the bowl and grabbed another one to put some crisp in.

"Sorry Jasper I'm not feeling well, I'm going to head home."

"Oh are you alright? Do you need a lift?" Jasper and Alice had flipped a coin to see who would remain sober for the party just to keep control on things if need be, or run anyone home. Jasper lost.

"Don't worry I'm fine, I only had two drinks at the start and I've been drinking water and coke since, I think I'll be alright. Could you do me a favour and tell Alice I've left?"

He nodded something behind me, and I turned around and Alice was there.

"You leaving already? But you've barely been here long; me and you were supposed to party all night." I laughed. Alice had definitely used winning the bet to her advantage.

"I'm not feeling too well honey, you go have fun and I'll speak to you tomorrow alright?"

Alice nodded and gave me a hug, and then blew a kiss to Jasper and went back to the other room.

I looked back to Jasper who was looking lovingly at his new fiancé, and when he saw me he said, "Don't worry, I've got my eye on her, you go home and get better." He had picked up crisp bowl and walked around the counter, giving me an awkward hug because of the bowl, and then I said goodbye and headed home.

I was surprisingly tired when I got back in, and I would have went straight upstairs to bed except I saw the flashing red light from the answering machine glow in our dark living room.

Switching the light on, I walked over to the machine and pressed the button, and I closed the blinds on the window as it told me I had one new message, then I collapsed on the couch.

"_Hey Edward it's me,"_ said a young woman's voice, _"I'm so happy you could come tonight on such short notice…_" I suddenly bolted upright in my seat and stared at the machine as it continued. _"…I really appreciated it, and I just called to say thanks again Edward, Bye." _And then the message stopped.

The thoughts were all rushing around in my head, and most of them led directly to the same thing.

I shook my head. I was jumping to conclusions.

Well what do you expect? A young woman calls the house, and says she enjoyed something that happened earlier that night. It would be stupid to ignore the alarm bells that were ringing inside my head.

He said he was at work.

_No, remember you thought he was going to work, he never actually said it, are you even sure that was where he was before the party?_

No, I knew he was at work beforehand, he forgot the time and his boss wanted him to work longer. I'll admit, it was stupid of me at the party to not ask him who called at that late of an hour. I just assumed it was work because they were the only one who did ask him to come in at unreasonable hours.

Unless after all this time, it wasn't work after all? Was Edward cheating on me?

I was waiting as patiently as I could in the front room, but I think the bobbing of my leg and occasional glances out the window were obvious signs I was nervous about what was going to happen. Or even what _had _happened.

I heard the sound of a car engine, and I looked out the window to see a pair or headlights in our driveway, belonging to Edward's Volvo. I took a quick glance at the clock and saw the time. _11:54_.

The car door was shut outside so I stood up and made my way to the hallway and waited for him to enter. I heard the turn of the lock and the door opened slowly and Edward stepped in.

He dropped his keys on the cabinet by the door and then went to carry on forward, but he noticed me and his eyes widened in shock.

_He can't be guilty. _I tried to reassure myself.

"Bella? I didn't realize you were up." He said, and started making his way towards me.

"Surprised?" I asked, unable to keep the anger out of my voice. Edward stopped coming towards me and looked at me curiously.

"Well, yes, Jasper text me and said you had gone home because you weren't feeling well."

"Why? Did you not expect me to be awake?"

"Bella you're confusing me, what the hell are you talking about?"

"You know perfectly well what I'm talking about." I answered but Edward looked like he was just going to pretend he didn't know a thing. "The distance, the late nights, I know what you've been up to Edward!"

A look of apprehension crossed his face and then it was quickly covered by worry and he looked down to the floor. I knew right then that my fears were true and I struggled to keep the tears from falling down my face and my heart from breaking in two.

"How long?" I asked through clenched teeth, trying to avoid my anger getting the better of me. Edward's face was still facing to the floor so I stepped forward and asked again, "How long has it been going on Edward?" My voice rose as I shouted at him and Edward looked back up slightly shocked at my sudden anger.

Well what did he expect? That I would just forgive him and let things be? That I wouldn't react this way when I found out he had been cheating on me?

"About two years." He answered back quite calmly. How could he stand there and be calm about this, and not realize the full extent of what he has done. For a few years as well!

"I can't believe this." I muttered as I turned away from him and walked into the front room. I heard his steps as he followed me into the living room. "I feel so stupid. I can't believe you kept lying to me all these years!"

"I had to keep it a secret because I knew you would react in this way."

"Well what did you expect Edward? How else am I going to react when I've been living my life thinking things could possibly get better between us…"

"Bella-"

"…and you've been parading around with other women behind my back!"

"Bella-" He started whatever reason he was going to throw at me, but he stopped mid-sentence and a look of confusion ran across his face. "Wait, what did you say?"

"I said that you've been with other women whilst you're_ wife_ was thinking things could get better between us."

Edward started to shake his head and step towards me with his arm outstretched to touch me, but I stepped to the side away from him and he sighed.

"Bella, I haven't been cheating on you." He said, and his face was so calm and looked so sincere that I would have believed him, but if he's been lying for years it's something I can expect now.

"Really?" I asked skeptically, and brushed past him to get to the phone and the answering machine, "Well if you're not cheating explain this." I pressed the button to replay the message and crossed my arms and looked back to him. The room was silent until the woman's voice filled the room as the message I heard before was played before him.

I watched him for a reaction, just to see if his brow got a bit sweatier or he started to fidget, anything to see if he was lying to me. His eyes widened as he heard the voice and he ran his hand through his hair, muttering something I couldn't make out.

"…_Thanks again for tonight Edward. Bye."_

I stood there impatiently as I waited for him to say something. "Well?" I urged.

"Her name's Jessica."

"It's good to know you're on first name basis with your flings." I stated coldly.

"Bella listen to me! I know her because she works with me at the station; she helps out with a few things." I still looked at him doubtfully as he continued, "There was an urgent meeting that Taylor called, and I was there on behalf of myself and Jasper. It was strictly professional, nothing more than business."

"She didn't sound like she was looking forward to a business meeting!"

"That's because there have been times…when she's tried to show her feelings for me, you even saw her yourself today at the station."

My mind automatically reeled back to the young woman who had entered the office, the one who apparently crushes on every male there. I was quickly angry again, and Edward must have seen my expression as he quickly added, "But Bella, you've got to believe me when I say that I totally ignored her, kept dismissing her advances and reminded her that I was married."

The room was silent and tense when I didn't respond to what he said. It was a relief to know that perhaps he wasn't cheating on me. but still, a small part if my mind, a part that at times like these I would just ignore the doubts and accusations it would tell me, a part that I would just mentally say 'shut up' and dismiss it's outrageous ideas, well right now I couldn't help but listen to what it was telling me. That Edward could be lying to me just so I could believe him and he could carry on with what he was doing…

I scolded myself internally for thinking such things. Edward was my husband; I should be able to believe the things he says and trust that he doesn't do anything whilst I wasn't with him.

Yet something else was brought to the front of my mind. If he was not cheating on me, (something that I'm still on the edge about) what has he been doing for the past few years that he hasn't told me?

"Fine, you didn't cheat on me." I started, and Edward's face looked relieved that I believed him, "But what have you been doing instead Edward?" His calm face quickly changed of one of worry again, most likely thinking I would have forgotten what he said earlier.

"You've just admitted you've been doing something for the past two years, what is it?" I asked again, his silence making me raise my voice.

"Edward what's so incredibly important that you have to keep it from me?"

"I've been looking for Mason alright!" He shouted at me and I was stunned into silence.

"What?" I asked, my voice just a whisper as I took in what he just told me.

"The late nights and early mornings at the station," he started, the anger still in his voice as he continued to talk to me with his voice raised, "I was using the extra time to look for him. Any leads, any information, any single piece of god damn evidence that I could use to get our little boy back.

"Each week I'll look through files, or get in contact with precincts in other states with different time zones, or look at the missing persons list to see our baby's name up there, with still no clue as to where he is.

"And each night it kills me to see his name move further down that list, with people not seeing him as a priority, with people just thinking that there's no hope left in finding him and that he's dead!"

To say what he just told me had shocked me would be an understatement. Although we both loved Mason, we rarely talked about him together in fear of bringing up the memory of our mistake those years ago.

But we wanted him back no matter what, and we would usually help each other, support each other when trying to find any new information.

And yet to know he had been trying to find him by himself! Yes, a small part of me is happy because Edward is pushing himself to find him, however another part of me, the part which I was more in favor for, was angry because he had kept it away from me. Did he not think I was capable with helping him finding our son? And the fact he had been keeping this a secret for _years_, and he didn't think of telling me?

"So what? You just thought you could keep something like this behind my back? You've kept this from me for _years_ Edward!"

"At least I've been trying to do something those past few years!"

The anger I was feeling couldn't be contained anymore after what he just said, and before I registered it, I had slapped him on the face.

Edward's shock was probably as big as my own as his hand reached up to his cheek where I had just slapped him. I had never done anything like this to him, and even though a part of me wanted to go up to him and apologise, the pain of hearing him say that I had never done anything to help Mason was terrible, hence the slap.

"How _dare_ you even think that I haven't been doing anything to try and find our son? Do you even realize the amount of things I try to do to help get some information? To help find him?" I shouted at him with tears in my eyes. "Oh I guess not, seeing as you're too busy at work to even know." I told him coldly

"Bella, look I'm s-"

"No, don't." I told him, stepping away, "I can't believe you didn't have the trust to tell me." I said quietly, my voice breaking near the end as my emotions were soon to overflow and I would start crying.

I turned away from him and made my way upstairs to our bedroom, hoping that he wouldn't come up tonight and would know better than to see me again tonight.

I collapsed on the bed as soon as I entered the room, crying into the sheets as my emotions took over, being upset over the whole situation that occurred tonight, and from knowing in the past few years he had been lying to me.

Edward never came up to the room that night, and I didn't hear the front door open or close either so I assumed he was likely to stay on the couch, even though there was a spare bedroom just down the hall.

As I cried, I couldn't help but wonder if this argument would somehow tear us further apart. Our relationship, our marriage had started to crumble ever since the incident with Mason and since Edward decided to take on that case. We had our occasional arguments and even though the distance thing was a problem we were still together. But a worrying feeling, one that brought butterflies to my stomach and made me want to cry even more, was that possibly, my relationship with Edward was soon going to end.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Thanks for reading, and please let me know what you think of the story, even constructive critism is welcomed or even just a smiley face to let me know you're enjoying it :)<strong>

**Plus, review, and you can get a sneak peak of chapter 5 :-D (_make sure you're private messaging is enabled so i can send you the sneak preview)_**

**Jaimie x**


	6. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5  
><strong>

**~~*~~  
>Bella's POV<strong>  
><strong>~*~<strong>

The house was eerily silent when I woke up the next morning. Which was usually the norm for me, however with it being a Sunday, I would have expected to hear Edward clunking around in the kitchen making himself breakfast.

I leaned forward and listened for any noise downstairs. Nope, none. Edward must have left the house.

In part I was glad; I didn't want to face him this morning anyway. I was still mad at him for what he said. I can't believe he said it in the first place. The fact he said that I wasn't searching for him made it sound like I didn't care! Plus he knew I had put myself through a hell of a lot of stress doing so many things to try and find him.

I turned and looked at my alarm clock to see it was just past 11 in the morning. So I may have slept in longer than I usually did, but the whole of last night had taken its toll on me and I had been exhausted.

I sighed which soon turned into a groan when I started to wonder what I looked like. I'd ended up falling asleep with all my make up still on, and let's not forget the crying beforehand. I pulled the quilt back and got out of bed, walking over to the mirror which was built-in to our wardrobe.

"Oh dear God." I said to myself as I took in my appearance. My eyeliner and mascara had run due to the crying, and the possible turning I had done when I had slept just made it all smudged as well. Yup, I could see the black stains on my pillowcase from here. My hair was better than I thought it would be, only a few wild strands sticking up here and there.

I undressed and quickly got a shower, spending a considerable amount of time washing my face and making sure I didn't have permanent panda eyes for the day.

After drying and getting changed, I stripped the pillowcase and took it, along with the dirty washing, downstairs to be cleaned. I put them in the washing machine and made myself some brunch since it was almost twelve now I was downstairs.

Once I finished I put my plate in the sink, saying to myself I'd wash it later, and then went to the living room as I remembered a small promise I made last night.

I picked up the phone from its dock, and sat down on the couch with my legs tucked underneath me, and called Alice's house.

"_Hello?"_ Jasper answered.

"Hey Jasper it's me, is she awake yet?"

"_Hey Bella, nah, she's still asleep, was partying till all hours this morning."_

"That sounds like her, I know she's asleep, but do me a favor and put her on for me?" My tone implying I wanted to have fun with this.

Jasper chuckled, _"Alright, but if she gets mad at me for letting me do this, I'll have your head."_

"Deal." I said, and I heard rustling on the other end as he walked around the house, then I heard him say quietly, _"Alice, sweetie, wake up, there's someone on the phone for you."_

There was groaning and perhaps a few curses. I couldn't help but laugh.

"_Hello?" _A gruff voice answered.

"Good afternoon sunshine." I said cheerfully down the phone.

"_Bella?"_

"Well who else is it going to be silly, have a nice night last night did we?" I asked, and I heard her groan in response.

"_I had far too much to drink, my head is killing me. I was easily persuaded into dancing and Jasper tells me my enthusiasm to keep the party going meant people didn't leave till around 4 in the morning." _Alice's voice had seemed to return to its normal tone then.

"Sounds like you enjoyed your party then."

"_From what I can remember yeah I had a great time, but I started hitting the drinks way too early, I'm not a teenager anymore, I'm too old for this!"_

I laughed, "Alice, we both know you'll be going to parties when you're in your fifties, probably be the one to take your kids to a club for the first time."

"_Hmmm, that's true. Hey, I remember you leaving quite early, what was it, like nearly twelve?"_

"Earlier than that, it was around ten."

"_Alright something must have happened because I know my party wasn't that bad. Jasper told me you and Edward left at separate times as well, did something happen between you?"_

"Yeah, kind of."

"_Do you want to talk about it?"_

I sighed, "It's a bit silly really, in hindsight. Firstly I was mad at him because he came to your party late."

"_We didn't mind you know, Edward explained to us about him taking care of something."_

"Well it bothered me, because I told him what time your party started and I told him to be there. I'm sorry Alice but when it's you and Jasper, he should get there on time. Then we sort of had a mini argument at the party over it and then we didn't really speak to each other for the rest of the night."

"_I noticed that. Is that why you were looking a bit unhappy, you know when I asked you?"_

"I'm sorry, I hadn't meant for you to notice, I didn't want you to be worrying over a petty thing on your party."

"_Bella I wouldn't have minded."_

"I didn't want to bother you on your party." I repeated, "Anyway just before I left he got a phonecall and he left."

"_You mean you never left together, I thought you did?"_

I ended up shaking my head, even though I knew she couldn't see me. "No, work called and said he had to go in. He left without saying a word to me. I just got frustrated with him. I'm sorry I left Alice, I feel terrible for doing it."

"_Stop apologizing, I'm sensing there's something more, what happened next?"_

I told her about the message on the machine and my suspicions about him cheating on me.

"_Nooo, he wouldn't, he never did he?"_ She gasped, _"Is that why he left the party? I swear Bella if he has I'll kick his ass myself…"_

"Alice calm down, apparently it was a false alarm, and it was just an urgent thing at the department."

"_Did he tell you that Bella? Because you know he can just be feeding you l-"_

"Please Alice; you're not helping me admit to myself he wasn't cheating. Anyways he was actually telling me the truth, there was…" I took a breath remembering, "…there was another reason."

"_Oh God,"_ Alice said sensing my tone, _"what was it?"_

"It's not as bad as you think; he just told me for the past few years, he has been putting the overtime in at work to do his own search for Mason."

I could tell Alice was confused. _"But that's a good thing isn't it."_

"Yeah it is, but he never told me about it. He never wanted us to do it together, but by himself, then he went on to say how I haven't done anything to help find him and then I err, I slapped him."

"_He bloody deserved it! I can't believe he said that to you, it's like saying you don't care!"_

"That's what I've been thinking."

"_Has he apologised?"_

I thought back to last night, "He went to apologise straight after he said it, but I didn't want to hear it."

"_Good, make him grovel for forgiveness as well, what he said was disgraceful. Do you want me to tell Jasper to ignore him at work?"_

"What? No, that's a bit harsh, they're friends."

"_Alright, I'll hold back on the 'Alice attack', but if something more happens let me know. Now I have to go now but make sure you call me alright?"_

"Yup, will do."

"_Good, I'll see you later then hun."_

"See you."

Just over a week had passed since the argument.

I hadn't spoken to Edward and he hadn't spoken to me.

There had been no groveling, no apologies; we barely saw each other over the past seven days, and the few minutes we did have together were filled with an unbearable tension.

Each passing moment I feared that something was going to happen but I didn't know what.

I asked Alice to see if Jasper knew anything about what was happening with Edward just yesterday when we caught up for lunch.

"Jasper knows about as much as I do." She had told me with apologetic eyes. "Trust me if I knew something I would tell you."

I sighed and looked down disappointed. I knew it wasn't Alice's fault, but I really wanted to know what was happening with Edward.

"All he says is that he comes in and ignores everybody, Jasper included, then goes straight to his office and doesn't come out till the end of his shift. Thing is, although it's been a week, no one has seemed to notice anything happening…work wise I mean." She explained.

So I was left to continue wondering what he was thinking, what he was doing, and it made me nervous not knowing.

For the past couple of years, I have had a growing fear within me of Edward leaving me. Since we started dating I thought why someone as handsome as Edward would be with someone as plain as me. There were prettier girls in school, and I'm sure there were in his University.

Call me insecure, but when I was standing next to pretty much a perfect model of man, it was pretty hard not to.

Then after the marriage and having Mason, came what was probably the worst day of my entire life. The day when our little boy was taken. After that day it was weeks of blaming one another for what happened, there were arguments, loud ones in fact. Then on top of all that Edward had to go back to work, solving various cases that would keep him in the office till all hours.

Then he was given that Volturi case and that just made things worse. His determination to close this particular case made it seem to him that the early mornings and late nights were excusable.

I understand he wants to prove something to those who are higher than him, but in all honesty that just made him completely focused on this case, and making him forget that he has other things to do outside of work. That is such a selfish thing only a wife would say, but my husband hasn't been there for me. Sometimes it doesn't even feel like I have a husband.

It was Monday, and after work I had decided to do some grocery shopping, so I never got back home till just before seven. I wasn't expecting Edward's Volvo to be parked in our driveway since for him this was relatively early.

I parked my truck and got the shopping out, carrying two bags with me and opening the front door to the house, leaving it open so I could quickly go back outside to get the rest.

As I walked back and forth in the hallway collecting the shopping, I could see Edward in the living room sitting on the couch, leaning forward with his elbows leaning on his knees, his hands clasped together with his chin leaning on them. He was thinking intently about something. I'll leave him be.

Once I got the last few bags, and I shut the door, I heard Edward get up and follow me into the kitchen.

"Bella, we need to talk."

"Can it wait a moment Edward; I'm putting the shopping away." I said as I looked at him. He was wearing one of his work suits, and he had the top few buttons unfastened and his tie loose. His eyes looked tired, and his hair was more of a mess; he was nervous over something, him running his hand through his hair was an obvious sign. He had placed an empty beer bottle on the counter. Just what I needed, him drinking right now as well.

"It's important." He insisted.

"Fine," I said, as I placed some eggs on the counter and placed my hands on it to lean on it, "what is it?"

He took a deep breath, and then he said four unexpected words that made me thankful I was holding onto this counter for support.

"I want a divorce."

There was no emotion in his voice, and he looked deadly serious. I froze in complete shock.

Somehow I managed to string some words together, "Shouldn't we talk about this first?"

"This is us talking about it; I want us to get a divorce."

I looked to the empty bottle of beer on the counter.

"How many of those have you had?" I asked, nodding to the bottle.

"None of your business."

"It is when I want to know whether what you've just said is Edward Cullen talking or the drink!"

"It doesn't matter, I know what I want."

"Are you sure? Don't you want to try and work through this? I mean, how about couples therapy?"

He sneered, "We done all that crap years ago, straight after we lost Mason. We tried working through it, and we tried the stupid therapy, and all it did was take money out of our wallets."

He looked down to me, "Let's face it Bella, we were young and naïve when we got married, we had barely matured. Now we both are, it's clear what's best for us, the feelings are just not there anymore and you know it."

I never responded. There have been times when I had thought to myself whether I did love Edward anymore. I always thought it was stupid. When we were young we had both said we were each other's soul mates, and the years after, I think I may have just used that as an excuse: 'I can't fall out of love with Edward because we were soul mates.'

But like Edward said, we were both young, barely out of high school when we got together, got married at the start of Uni, we were making mature adult decisions at a time when we should be making decisions like whether or not we should go to a party when we had a paper due in.

Edward took my silence as an answer he wanted, "So, can we get the divorce?" He asked again.

I looked back to him, to his eyes.

"This is something you really want?" I asked.

"Yes, and I think whether or not you admit it now, but deep down you know this is the right thing to do."

"Can I ask you something?" I said, and Edward looked a bit unhappy that I was still avoiding his question, but he nodded. "Is there another woman?" I had to make sure, after my suspicions last week, I wouldn't be surprised.

"No," he answered, "I wasn't lying when I said I had never cheated on you, there's no one else." He said sincerely.

I took a deep breath in. There was really only one answer to his question. "Fine, we'll get the divorce."

Edward had left to call someone to do him a favor, since he had had a drink, he couldn't do it himself.

The shopping that I had brought in was still in its bags on the counter. I never bothered unpacking it after the conversation with Edward. Instead I was telling myself I really needed to sit down. So for an hour or so, I had sat at our dining table and just stared into space.

It was here when Edward surprised me those few weeks ago. How could he change so easily? Or was his little dinner a test for himself to see if he still had feelings for me?

That is what I had pretty much done for the past hour. I would sift through mine and Edward's time together and instead of looking at it as a simple memory; I was breaking it down, seeing if it was clear in that memory the feelings were there or not. And unfortunately, for most of the memories that had occurred in the past few months, it was clear.

I looked up from my random spot on the table when I heard the door open and shut. He was back home from his errand. I looked back down to my spot since that was more interesting now to what Edward was doing.

I heard him walk into the room, and then he slid something across the table to me, and my spot was shielded from a small stack of papers.

"What are these?"

"The divorce papers."

I looked up at him in both shock and anger, "What? Already!"

"Well, yes, I told you I wanted a divorce."

"But this quick? You could have been more subtle and telling me you wanted me out by just having all my stuff in bags outside."

"Bella, no, that's not what I had meant for you to think."

"Really?" I said, and I stood up from the chair, "Then what did you want me to think Edward? Because this is sending quite the clear message." I shouted, shaking the papers at him. "How did you even do it so quick?"

"I've been speaking to my lawyer the past week to see if he could organize it, and so I asked him to prepare them a few days ago."

I shook my head, "A few days ago." I said to myself in disbelief.

"Yes, he also said if you agree to the papers then we won't have to worry about you getting a lawyer and dragging this whole thing out. The papers are pretty simple really; I made sure they would be all agreeable to you."

I looked down to the papers. He had basically made sure that I could sign this here and now. I was tempted to just say no, and that I wanted a lawyer, but in fairness he was right, and I needed the money. "You know what, if you want me gone, then fine." I started to read through my part of the papers, making sure I wasn't giving him all my money or something random like that.

"Bella you don't have to do this now."

"Really? Because it seems you want me to do this now. Why else would you shove these papers in my face?"

I continued scanning the words without Edward interrupting me. "Do you have a pen?" I tried to ask as calmly as possible, but with the way I was feeling even that sounded angry.

He fished into his inside pocket and pulled out a pen, sliding that to me as well. I looked to all the places where I should sign and done it as quickly as possible. I could feel the tears building up in my eyes, but I would not look weak in front of Edward. Not now.

My signatures were deep; my anger was making me grip the pen so hard I thought I might accidently rip the paper from it.

Once I finished signing, and double checked there wasn't anything I missed out, I picked up the papers from the table and strode over to Edward, who was watching me with careful eyes.

"Here," I said, and shoved the papers into his chest, "Have fun in your new single life." I said harshly as I walked past him and upstairs, a few tears slipping past now Edward wasn't there.

I knew I couldn't stay here another night. That was my own decision, but I think it was obvious Edward didn't want me here either.

I grabbed my suitcase and a few sports bags from our closet and threw them on the bed, and started to clear out some of my things from this room. I threw all my underwear and my own toiletries into one of the sports bags, and then I started to get my clothes. I wasn't even looking at what ones I was grabbing, I was just getting them and throwing them into the suitcase, and making it relatively neat so I could fit more clothes in. I managed to fit the shoes I often wore into the suitcase and left the heels behind.

I was finished in no time, and I picked up my suitcase and my bags and hauled them off the bed. The suitcase made a loud thump when it hit the floor, and I could barely lift it it was that heavy.

I dragged them to the stairs and slowly let the suitcase just drop to each step, since it was too heavy to pick up.

Edward came out of the living room, confused as to what the commotion was, then he saw me on the stairs with all my bags, and I thought for a split second, he looked sad.

"Bella what the hell are you doing?"

"What does it look like? Clearly you don't want us to be together so I'm not staying here any longer."

"Bella just because I asked for the divorce doesn't mean I want you to move out straight away!"

"Well, one of us will be doing it sooner or later, so I am just doing it sooner rather than later."

I continued pulling the suitcase downstairs. "Bella it's past 9 o'clock, where are you going to go?"

I managed to get it down the last step and to the door, "Frankly Edward I didn't think you would care." I said, giving him one last look, and then I grabbed my keys and left the house, shutting the door on Edward's stunned face.

I put my bags on the passenger seat and stuffed the suitcase in the foothold. I walked back around and got into the truck and drove away, only looking back at the house through the rearview mirror.

The tears were falling freely now, and I had to pull over once my vision was slightly impaired. I didn't think I would get this upset over all of this, but right now it was all taking its toll. My heart felt like it had been stabbed; it had felt that way as soon as he had asked for the divorce, and him wanting me to do it right there and then felt like a painful twist. My arm wrapped around my stomach as though I was about to fall apart at any moment.

I knew deep down this was the right decision. It made sense for the both of us. I didn't love Edward anymore, so why was I feeling like this?

It sounded like a good idea to storm out at the time, but I didn't have anywhere to go, and I was most certainly not returning there. I didn't know how much money I had on me otherwise I would have gone to a motel or a hotel, but I really didn't want to be alone at that moment, and as soon as I thought of where to go, I more or less pulled myself together and restarted the engine and drove off again.

I didn't bother getting the suitcases out of the truck. In fairness I had to ask them if I could stay first. I managed to get to the front door and knocked.

The front door opened and Alice stood there with a bright smile on her face and whatever I was going to say to her just disappeared from my brain and I just broke down even more.

Alice was immediately worried and quickly ran out to me and hugged me. "Oh my God Bella are you alright? What's happened? Here come inside." We walked inside, her arm around my waist as she supported me, and we went into the lounge and sat down onto one of the couches.

"Honey what's happened?" She asked gently as she handed me a tissue from her bag that was on the floor next to her.

I took a deep breath in and dabbed my eyes, trying to control my crying so I was able to speak at least. Alice was patient with me as she waited for my answer.

"Edward and I, we…we both decided to…"

Alice had managed to figure it out anyway, "Oh no Bella I'm sorry, he doesn't deserve you anyway." She said, and I tried to smile, but I just couldn't.

"Would it be alright if I stay here for a while?" I asked, my voice quiet.

"You can stay here as long as you want. Do you have your stuff?"

I nodded, "Truck." I said simply.

Alice called Jasper down, and before he could ask me what was wrong, Alice quickly told him to get the bags out of my car and put them in their spare room. I would have argued that it wouldn't be for that long and the couch would have been fine, when the phone rang.

Alice went to stand up but I quickly grabbed her arm. "Please don't answer it, it might be him."

She looked between me and the phone and sat back down, and we waited for the machine to pick it up.

"_Hey Alice? Jasper? It's me…" _I drew a staggered breath in as I listened to Edward and Alice rubbed my back comfortingly. _"…I can't explain why at the moment, but Bella's left the house and I'm not sure where she went. I'm not trying to get in touch with her but I need to know if she's safe, can you try and call her for me because I don't think she'll answer for me. Thanks, bye." _And then he hung up.

Trust him to be an ass at the house and then come across all caring and do something like this just to make sure I was safe. Crap, here come the tears again.

"I wanted the divorce Alice," I tried to explain to Alice, seeing as to her I probably looked a complete mess, "it was a mutual agreement, but, I don't know why I'm hurting like this, it's just…it's because…" I kept saying, trying to find the best way to describe it.

"It's Edward." Alice answered perfectly.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: So heres chap 5 for you, and give me a bit of artistic license for how the whole divorce thing goes, I am only 17 so I don't know how it goes exactly, but for the story I needed it to be a quick one.<strong>

**Anyways I thought I would get this out for you, in the middle of Jan exams which is a pain :( but I didn't want them to affect my posting so here it is, I hoped you enjoyed it, maybe review and let me know what you thought, you may get a little sneak peak of chap 6 :)**

**Thanks for reading**

**Jaimie xx**


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

**~~*~~  
>Edward's POV<br>~*~**

When Jasper saw me walking out of my office on Monday, the first time we had seen or even spoke to each other since the other night, it wasn't hard to tell he was wondering whether nodding a 'hello' to me would be alright.

He probably knew everything that happened that night, whether Bella told him or not, Alice would have filled him in anyway. Right now I was watching him tell Jacob what had happened. I didn't have to hear what they were saying, I could tell by their expressions. Jacob's in particular. Both upset and livid he was. I'm glad now that he didn't figure out I was married to Bella. I just hoped Jasper never mentioned my name.

Fortunately he seemed to loosen up a few days later, and I'm sure even if she's completely angry at me, Bella may have had something to do with him talking to me.

I sighed and moved back from the window of my office and to my desk, loosening my tie and unbuttoning my top button before sitting down in the chair, and to the small pile of papers on my desk.

The papers in front of me were mocking me. For most of the day, I had stared endlessly at the dotted line on the bottom of the sheet where I was to sign my name. A few centimetres away, was Bella's signature. The pen's impression deep, and full of anger, another reminder of how upset she was when I told her about the divorce.

We had spoken to our lawyers about alimony and such, agreeing over the details like that, so that part was sorted, it was just I was the one who needed to sign the divorce papers.

The divorce. My idea. Yet why couldn't I pick up the pen, and sign the documents? I had asked this question to myself about one hundred times today, each answer was split into either:

No, not yet, another time…

Yes, but do it quick. But by the time I pick up the pen I question myself again and drop it back onto the desk.

Or - what the hell were you thinking in the first place?

That last answer would cause me to think back through the past few months, and eventually this whole cycle would begin again.

Subconsciously, I think I wasn't ready to let Bella go. I don't think I'll ever be able to let Bella go, but I had made my decision and forced myself to believe that what I was doing was for a good cause.

Yes, it was a good cause. Hopefully Bella would get over me and move on with her life, find a good man who can make her constantly happy, give her the life she should have had.

I had screwed up our relationship by being overly dedicated to this damn job. A job that was allowing me to lead a case that could possibly allow me to find out some information on how my mother died, work harder to find my little boy, and yet could keep me busy for years to come, making me believe I was falling _out_ of love with her.

It made sense. We had married straight out of high school, not even grown up ourselves and yet we tied ourselves to a serious relationship. Once we had Mason I thought maybe things would get better, but when all that shit happened it just tore us further apart. Then with our jobs, well mostly mine, we spent no time together, so I guess that was the final turn that ruined our short marriage.

But on that night, I didn't want things to end like that between the two of us. Yes I had wanted the divorce, and I didn't know how I could face Bella without some alcohol down me. Perhaps I shouldn't have been so hasty in giving her the papers, but I wouldn't have been able to last any longer. I knew if I waited any longer I would have done something more stupid.

Looking back, what was more stupid than shoving the papers at her, no time to absorb it or to think about it, I just thought that she was in the same place as me, and we were making a right decision.

And then when she just packed her things and left, and she never told me where she was going. In fairness I just divorced her, she didn't have to, but still, if you think of the possible emotional state she was in, making a rash decision like that, I had to worry. I didn't want her having a car accident because she was upset, or being hit on by some psychopath because they think they've found an easy pull.

Alice ended up calling me late at night. She had kept the conversation short, simply saying that she was staying at theirs and she's alright. And then a warning not to come over.

That had been the first of the calls.

The second was a badly timed call from my Uncle and Aunt up in Forks, Washington. I couldn't blame them for they're timing because they didn't know what had just happened, they just knew to call me later in the evening because I was usually home by then from work.

It was hard telling my Aunt Esme that we were getting divorced. Esme and Carlisle absolutely adored Bella; they accepted her as part of the family the day I invited her around to meet them. Of course Esme and Carlisle already knew Bella; Carlisle especially. Bella's many visits to the hospital when she was younger had pretty much made them friends.

It took a while for her to accept it, kept repeating that Bella and I couldn't split up, but I kept reminding her that it was too late.

It felt weird going into work for some reason. Obviously no body else knew but Jasper, but it was just a feeling in the air, and I didn't like it.

The door opened and I quickly grabbed the sheets and hid them under the desk as Jasper walked in. All he knew was that I had signed the papers and sent them off to the lawyers to be finalized a few days ago. If Jasper found out that I hadn't had the courage to sign the papers then he'll certainly ask me what the hell I am doing.

"Hey Jasper," I greeted.

Jasper walked into the office, slightly unsure about what to do with himself, which worried me slightly. He decided against sitting down and just got straight to the point.

"Alice wants me to tell you, that she'll be going back to your house today to collect the rest of Bella's stuff."

"Oh, right okay."

He shifted a bit and he looked unsure about the next thing he needed to say.

"Was there something else?"

Jasper sighed, and grabbed something out of his pocket and placed it on the desk in front of me. "Bella said you should have this back."

He moved his hand back, and my eyes were drawn to the rings that Jasper had placed on my desk. Bella's engagement ring, a ring that had previously been my mother's, and then next to it, a gold wedding ring.

He watched me, to see a reaction I presume, but instead he just asked me, "How are you feeling?"

"I'm alright, why do you ask?"

"No reason," He shrugged, and I could see he was dodging something, "I'll have to get back to work." He said as a goodbye, and he turned around and left, leaving me with the two rings.

I picked them up and turned them over in my hand. I was a bit shocked by this. I don't know why, but I guess you could say I just wasn't expecting it. Even though we had signed the papers, this gesture, giving me back the rings, there was something about it that had left me in shock.

I placed them back on the table before all the memories of a time before our relationship fell apart came rushing to the front of my mind.

As I put them on the desk, my own wedding ring caught my eye. I started twisting it around my finger as I was thinking. I'd completely forgotten about it, which was strange, since I wear them everyday as a constant reminder of our relationship.

I sighed. I should take it off immediately, if anyone saw they would get the wrong idea. For me, it held no meaning anymore. To me it was just a gold ring on my finger.

I twisted and pulled it off my finger, and placed it with the other two on the desk.

**~~*~~  
>Bella's POV<br>~*~**

Alice and Jasper could not whisper well.

I had been asleep and started to stir when I heard something outside my room.

Although slightly muffled from the closed door, I could still hear what they were saying.

"You go in."

"No you go in."

"No I went in before, you go in." I heard Alice half whisper-half shout to Jasper. They sounded like two kids who had done something wrong and was about to tell their parents.

"I can't go in, I fraternise with the enemy." Jasper answered back, "I don't want to make her feel worse."

"Fine, but you need to go in sometime." I heard her say, and then there was a tentative knock on my door. "Bella, honey?" She said, and I opened my eyes a bit as I saw her peek her head in.

"Hey," I sort of groaned, still sleepy.

She sat on the edge of the bed, "Bella, dinner's ready."

I rubbed my eyes and looked to the closed curtains; there was no light coming through, "Really?"

Alice nodded, but sort of sadly. "You've slept in all day; you haven't eaten anything, come downstairs."

"It's ok, you and Jasper go, I'm not hungry."

"Bella…"

"It's alright," I yawned, rolling over and fixing my pillow, "really, you go eat."

I could tell Alice was unsure about leaving, but eventually she patted my leg and I felt the weight shift off the bed, and before long I was asleep again.

The next day the only time I got up was to go the toilet early in the morning. I missed breakfast. I missed lunch. I just wasn't hungry. I didn't feel anything, but numbness and exhaustion. All I wanted to do was sleep.

My mobile rang from besides me and I picked it up without looking at the caller ID.

"Hello?" I asked, my voice heavy from just waking up.

"_Bella is that you?"_ A deep voice returned, and I sat up straighter, a bit confused from who it was.

"I'm sorry who is this?"

"_Bella its me, your big favourite brother in the whole wide world, are you drunk or something forgetting who I was."_

"Sorry Emmett, I've just been asleep, didn't check the ID."

"_Isn't it like 5 o'clock up there in Chicago?"_

Ignoring his question, I just said, "So why did you call Em?"

"_Haha, you're definitely wasted." _He joked, but then his tone became more serious. _"Why didn't you tell me what happened?"_

"What happened with what?"

"_What happened with that idiot husband of yours?"_

"Oh, that thing." I said, looking down to my now ringless finger…it didn't feel right not having my engagement and wedding rings anymore, and it was bloody hard to get them off, and I'm not talking just about physically.

"_Yes, that thing, Bella I had to find this out from Esme Cullen, when she saw me in the street and asked me how you were coping. I thought she was talking about Mason, but then she mentioned you and Edward and I got confused, and then she tells me you two got a divorce!"_

I sighed, "Listen Em, I'm sorry that I never got around to telling you, I've just been a little preoccupied at the moment, that's all."

"_Sure it is, do you want me to come down there and kick his ass._"

"What? Emmett no."

"_Look Bells, it's my role as the protective older brother, to beat the shit out of those who hurt you, guys especially."_

"Emmett, I can take care of my own battles."

"_Pfft, coming from the woman who was nearly attacked in Port Angeles when you only went shopping for a stupid prom dress."_

I shivered. I had went to top up the parking metre, and decided to take a short cut through the back alleys, and was cornered by two lads.

"Em, that has got nothing to do with this, it was like a million years ago, and plus, who was the one who saved me?"

There was a pause on the line, but then eventually he said, _"Edward."_

It was fortunate that Edward was in Port Angeles and he thought he had seen a figure that looked like me down one of the alleyways. He followed to see if it was in fact me, and saw me being pestered by the two lads. Came over and wrapped his arm around me (we weren't actually together at this moment in time, just friends) and pretended that there was a bunch of our friends from the football team who were waiting for me. They left me alone then, and I had liked Edward a little bit more.

"Exactly, so there's still stuff to be grateful for."

"_I'm not going to be grateful for him."_

Realising I might as well just give up on persuading him, I just moved past it.

"_Did he cheat on you?"_

"Jeez Emmett, no, he did not cheat on me." Even though there was a hint of doubt in my mind whether he might have.

"_Has he turned gay?"_

"No! Emmett stop with the questions, we just don't love each other any more."

"_Fine. Well how about I come down to Chicago anyways, come see my little sis."_

"As much as I'm grateful Emmett, I know it'll be some sort of sympathy visit, so you might as well stay up there, and I'll come up to Forks for a while in a few weeks."

"_Promise?"_

"Yes I promise Em."

He paused for a moment and then said again, _"Are you sure you don't want me to come down?"_

"Emmett I swear, I'm fine, you don't have to travel from Washington just to see me, I'm fine."

"_From what I've heard from Alice it doesn't sound that way."_

I paused momentarily, "You've spoken to Alice?"

"_Yes, she called me literally after I had seen Esme, asking me to do something because you're shutting everyone out."_

"I'm not shutting everyone out." I argued back.

"_When was the last time you saw anyone and had a meaningful conversation?"_

"Can the last few minutes count?"

"_Bella…"_ He said sternly.

"Fine, last week I guess."

"_Look Bella, these people are your friends, and just because that dickhead you married doesn't want you anymore, don't take it out on your friends."_

"Don't call Edward that."

"_Don't call Edward what?"_

"You know what Emmett."

"_I'll call him whatever the hell I want! He hurt my baby sister, and frankly, you should be happy that I haven't come down there to Chicago, ripped his balls off and then fed them to him!"_

"Please Emmett, do you mind not saying things like that."

He stopped speaking and there was a pause on the line.

"Emmett?"

"_You still love him don't you?"_

"What?"

"_You're in love with him, no wonder you're being all protective of him and are in such a mess, you still love him!"_

"No, Emmett, I don't."

"_If you still love him Bella why did you get that stupid divorce, why didn't you try to work things out?"_

"Emmett, for the last time, I don't love Edward anymore. The divorce was a mutual agreement; it was something that we thought would be best for the both of us, the feeling just isn't there anymore."

"_Sure you aren't."_ He muttered down the phone and I sighed, _"Look, I've got to get back to work, but promise me that you'll move on from that idiot and speak to your friends."_

"I promise."

"_Good, anymore problems and you ring me okay? I'll speak to you later then sis, love ya."_

"Love you too."

I put the phone down and sat up properly in the bed and looked at the clock. Jeez Emmett was right about the time. My sleeping pattern was messed up.

Knowing I wouldn't get back to sleep I got up and headed downstairs.

The smell of cooking onions and chicken and a mixture of other ingredients had filled the house, and my stomach growled when I knew Alice was cooking dinner. I made my way to the kitchen and found her slicing up some peppers.

"Hey," I said, and her head lifted up from cutting and saw me at the doorway.

"Hey sleepyhead didn't know whether you were out for the count or whether you'd be up for dinner. Guess I was right. I made stir-fry, is that alright."

"That's fine Alice, look, I need to apologise for something."

"What's that?" She asked as she put the peppers in the wok.

"Just the way I've been acting. When Edward and I broke up, you and Jasper were so good to me and so supportive, I mean you're letting me stay here on short notice when you have your wedding in a few months, and all I've done is locked myself up in the room and then eat your food."

"What in the world has made you want to apologise?"

I shrugged.

"Look Bella, you are my best friend, I wouldn't care if you wore my clothes on top of all that, or got me to run your errands, frankly, right now I don't care, you need time to yourself, to get over a few things and if by going to your room helps you do that fine, also if you want to watch some films on the couch with a big tub of Ben & Jerry's you can do that too, of course you'd have to bring two spoons because I would want to get in on the ice cream and films myself."

I smiled, "Thanks Alice, but still, are you sure about this…"

"One hundred percent positive."

I went over and hugged her, "Oh, one other thing, when did you speak to Emmett?" I felt her body freeze for a moment but I laughed, "Don't worry about it, I'm glad you did." Alice looked relieved and smiled, then went back to stirring.

"How about I grab some films and we do the movie thing now?"

Alice frowned, "I haven't got any 'Ben & Jerry's'."

"Have you got chocolate?"

She raised an eyebrow at me. "Of course I do."

"Then that'll be fine, I'll go get changed into something more comfortable," I said looking down at the creased clothes I had fallen asleep in, "and the films so we can watch them straight after dinner."

I turned around to head upstairs when Alice called me. I spun around and peeked my head into the kitchen.

"You know I was kidding about you borrowing my clothes, right?"

I nodded my head and laughed to myself as I headed back upstairs, realizing as I made my way up that that was the first time I had laughed in a while.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Jan exams are over, and so here is a new chap :) hope you enjoyed it<strong>

**Want more? Review and you will get a sneak preview of chap 7 :P**

**Thanks for reading :)**

**Jaimie xx**


	8. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

**~~*~~  
>Edward's POV<br>~*~**

It had been just under two weeks since I had asked Bella for the divorce. Fortunately Jasper was back to normal and speaking to me, whilst Alice refused to acknowledge my presence, but I couldn't judge her for being mad at me, she was just looking after her best friend.

I tried to catch a hint of how Bella was doing. Apparently she was still in their house, but neither Jasper nor Alice would tell me how she was, so I assumed she was doing fine.

But still, I had the dilemma of deciding when I was going to sign the divorce papers.

I still hadn't gotten around to it. My lawyer called me up a day or two ago asking whether it was still happening since he had no final word from me, so I just lied and pretended there must have been some sort of postal error and I'll follow up on it.

It was wrong, I know, but if my lawyer decided to contact Bella's lawyer, well, let's just say I didn't want to make the situation worse and put added stress on her.

You know what, I might as well get it over and done with, stop this delaying and sign the papers, and then it will be out of my hands and I won't have to think about it again.

I pulled the sheets out from my bottom draw, and grabbed a pen, scanning over where I was to sign, when there was a knock and my office door opened.

I quickly grabbed the sheets off the desk when Jasper walked in, he was still under the impression I had sent them off weeks ago. I tried to look relaxed, whilst trying to open the drawers of my desk so I can slip the papers back inside without him noticing.

"Edward you look terrible, I mean I think you're starting to resemble a vampire."

"Thanks, that means a lot to me." I said sarcastically.

"Seriously Edward," he moved from the door and sat in the chair opposite me, "since this whole divorce thing you haven't slept, I don't think I've seen you eaten much, and you spend most of your time either cooped up in here or at home. Like I said, you're like a vampire."

I rolled my eyes at his description and tried to push the documents in the drawer. My eyes never broke contact with Jasper's, and I was afraid I might drop them on the floor.

"So," I said, leaning forward slightly and was able to get the papers into the drawer, and then lift my hand up to rest on the desk as if nothing was wrong, "what's the matter?"

He looked at me suspiciously for a second, but dropped it, "There's been a new lead in the case. Taylor reckons that tonight will be the night in which the deal, whatever it may be, will occur."

"That's great, what are we doing about it?"

"We need some evidence to prove that this deal is related to something illegal."

I nodded and Jasper continued with what he had to say, "We believe this man," he produced a case file and placed it on the desk, opening it to a page which showed a snap shot of a young man probably just a few years younger than I was, "is going to be delivering something important, but we don't know what."

"So for all we know he could be delivering pizza for them."

"Edward be serious, sources tell us that they think he may be some sort of dealer, we're not sure, but he is going to that house we've been watching lately. Plus, it's been rumoured that the bosses themselves will be there tonight."

I looked up quickly from the case file, "All of them?"

"Yes, the Volturi leaders themselves."

"This is an opportunity that we can't miss. Tell Taylor to send a couple of us to watch the area, the usual stake out. Make sure they have cameras, anything that can get these guys as we need the evidence. If we are totally sure about what they are doing then we can arrest them there and then, avoid any possibilities of them escaping. Have a few squad vehicles on standby incase the worst case scenario happens and things turn ugly." I said whilst standing up and grabbing various things from my desk.

"Ok, the drop off is supposed to be arriving at around half-past six this evening." Jasper said whilst standing up from the chair. I looked at the clock that was above the door and noticed the time had just turned a few minutes past four.

"How long have we known this information?" I asked looking back down to Jasper.

"Vincent just informed me and then I went straight to you."

"They didn't tell me first." I said angrily, "I'm the one they're supposed to give this information to. Why didn't they tell me earlier?" I said frustrated, grabbing my jacket and heading out of my office. I had meant for my question to be rhetorical, but Jasper answered, "Apparently they're scared of you or something." He was smiling and trying to make light of the situation, but I was still angry.

"Well I'll give them something to be scared about."

"Edward wait…" Jasper called out to me, but I made my way through the busy room filled with officers to find _Vincent._ The name didn't match to a face and I scanned the room to find him. My eyes caught sight of a name plate on a desk not too far away from me reading _Vincent Riozzi._

I made my way across where I saw a young man sitting lazily in his chair chewing casually on the end of his pen. He had a bit of a baby face, even though it looked like he was well built. His blonde hair was short, but long enough that he could have it swept to the side.

He didn't notice I had walked up to his desk, and so I slammed my hand down onto his desk. He jumped, startled, "Hey! What do you think you're doing?"

People turned their heads at the noise but I was focused on the arrogant man infront of me to care. I calmed myself slightly so my anger wouldn't get the better of me.

"Are you Vincent?"

"Well duh." He said whilst gesturing to the name plate that was sat on his desk.

"Well Vincent, would you like to tell me why you didn't bring me the information regarding the Volturi case?"

He leant back in his chair and looked at me curiously, "Should I have?"

"Yes you damn well should have." He still looked at me curiously but recognition slowly dawned on his face, and his eyes widened a bit as he looked at me properly.

"Sorry Detective, I didn't mean to-"

"Next time do things right, follow orders and never speak to me like that again." I threatened and pushed away from his desk.

"Cullen." Someone shouted from behind me, so I turned around to see Taylor standing by his office door. "My office now." He ordered and gestured with his fingers for me to follow him into the room. I walked past the stares of my co-workers and into the office. I slammed the door behind me when I entered his office and walked straight to the chairs that were sitting on the other side of his desk.

His office had that intimidating feeling to it, and it most likely made any officer that stepped in here quite worried about what would happen to them. It was usual that people never went into his office, but he went to yours if he wanted to find out something.

He didn't sit in his seat, but paced behind his desk, "Can you explain what that was all about?"

"Sorry Chief, I was just a bit angry that's all. He knew some information that could help us break the case and he just sat there not giving a damn about how important this is."

"Cullen, calm yourself down. Now listen to me for a second," he placed his palms on the desk and leaned a little towards me and said quietly, "this behaviour, it hasn't got anything to do with what may be happening outside of your job."

"I don't know what you're talking about." I said, almost through clenched teeth.

"Your divorce. If it is having a bad effect on you, and you are unable to work comfortably with your fellow officers, then I recommend you take a few days off until you sort yourself out."

"There's nothing to sort out."

"Then you're saying your little outburst just then was your usual self. Don't kid yourself Cullen; take the rest of the week off."

"No!" I said standing up from my seat. "I am this close," I quickly indicated with my forefinger and thumb about an inch apart, "this close to closing the case. I can't give this up right now, not when I'm this close."

"Alright, but one more occasion like this and you're having a break." I nodded and went to leave his office when he added, "Oh, I want you to take Vincent with you on the stake out you're planning tonight." I stopped walking and turned back to Taylor.

"What?"

"You heard me. Mr. Riozzi has just recently joined our force, so I think it would be nice to treat him nicely and not scare him off at the first chance you get. Especially if he did find the break in your case, he's a lucky kid. So take him with you, oh and Black too."

I groaned, "Jacob Black as well."

"Yes." He raised an eyebrow at me, "Have a problem with that?"

I put on a smile and answered, "No sir, that's absolutely fine." I turned around and left the room, heading back into the crowded room where everyone seemed to carry on and ignore anything else that happens there. I walked past Jacob Black's desk, which seemed too small compared to his about 7ft figure.

"Black you're with me." I said walking past him, not giving anytime to respond. I heard him scrambling behind me as he tried to catch up to me as I made my way over to Vincent's desk, "You too Riozzi." I said and watched his shocked face before he also stood up and followed me out the station.

"Really, you're letting me go with you?"

"No, I really had no opinion in this decision, maybe if you would have done things right I wouldn't have to endure a few hours with you." I carried on walking as Vincent was now silent behind me and Jacob snickered. I don't know why I took an instant disliking to this guy. Perhaps I was just having an off-day and I'll warm up to him eventually, but there was something in me, instinctual you could say, that made me not trust this guy.

It had been thirty minutes since it had turned half-past six, and I really doubted there was going to be a drop off tonight.

"Are you positive what you found out was correct and tonight is the night?" I asked looking into the rear-view mirror to see Vincent looking eagerly at the house.

"Yes I'm sure, I don't know why they're late."

"Maybe because you can't do things right." I muttered, looking back over to the house. A couple of the lights were on inside, and we could see the shadows moving around meaning there was some sort of activity in there. We estimated there were approximately a dozen of them in there, maybe including the three leaders themselves.

"You know what," Vincent said, whilst stretching, "I am absolutely starving, is it ok if I grab a bite to eat?"

"Do you have to?" I asked.

"Yes." He answered simply, "I haven't eaten any lunch. There's a subway just around the corner isn't there?"

I nodded and he took this as a sign to leave the car, "Vincent." I called, causing him to stop the door from closing half-way, "You do have your earpiece don't you?"

He tapped his ear and then shut the door, walking away from the car leaving just Jacob and I. He was extremely tall, his neck was bent slightly so his head didn't touch the roof of the car, his muscles could be seen from under the layers of clothes he was wearing, and I felt a bit inferior when sitting next to him. His hair was dark, and cropped short, and matched with his dark skin and eyes.

"So what happened to your usual partner?" Jacob asked from besides me.

"Taylor told me to take you two after what happened in the office earlier."

"Oh yeah, I saw that, what happened?"

"Nothing much, just got a bit angry that's all. Got stuff happening back home that's got me all riled up."

"Like what?" he asked curiously, and I felt like telling him to keep his nose out of my business.

"Divorce."

"Ouch." Jacob said, "Sorry man that's unfortunate."

"What about you? Please keep me entertained with any lady problems you are having back home to make me feel just a little better."

He chuckled and then a smile appeared on his face and I knew I wasn't going to like what he was going to say about a girlfriend he has.

"Well there is one girl," He started, "She's a good friend of mine and she's…."He trailed off mid-sentence, to stop and concentrate on something.

"She's what?" I asked, wondering why he stopped.

"Wait a minute; you just said you're getting a divorce right?"

I nodded.

He looked thoughtful for a minute, and then turned away from me and laughed to himself, muttering to himself saying something like 'I can't wait to tell her I figured it out'.

"Why? Is something funny about me getting divorced Black?"

He quickly stopped laughing, not from the tone my question was asked in, but from something else, like he had just realized something. His face quickly turned angry and he turned in his seat to face me.

"You don't realize how much you've hurt her-"

"_Jake I got you a sub alright. I didn't bother getting ole' grumpy face one."_ Vincent interrupted over the intercom, breaking the tension that had quickly seemed to build between Jacob and myself.

"Vincent you know I can hear what you are saying."

"_Yeah, I know."_ I rolled my eyes and looked off into the distance to see Vincent walking up to the car with a subway bag in his hand.

He wasn't too far away from the house we were watching, and the figure I saw earlier was now keeping an eye on Vincent and his surroundings as he made his way to the house. I nudged Jacob, forgetting our earlier discussion, and nodded to the man who was walking down the street. He grabbed a pair of binoculars and got a better look at the man, "Yup that's him." He confirmed.

"Vincent, I want you to be very careful of your actions. We have our target in view, do not come back to the car otherwise you'll give away our position."

"_What? Edward I can't hear you much, I think these earpieces you got have bad signal."_

"Vincent, be silent and keep walking, but walk past the car. We don't want you to give away our position."

I watched as the man took one last look at Vincent then made his way up the front steps and knocked on the door. There was movement in the front windows and then the door opened slightly to allow the man to enter. "Damn it we don't have a good visual." Jacob said, whilst peering down the binoculars again.

"Vincent listen to me, I need you to walk close to the house, try and get a visual of what is happening inside."

"_What? Are you serious?" _He half-shouted, half-whispered, he pressed his finger to his ear as though he was trying to make it easier for himself to hear us.

"Edward I think they're starting to take notice."

"Vincent, take your hand down right now. Make your way over to the house-"

"No Edward wait, there's some movement at the top window; if we make him go over there there's a risk he'll probably be caught." I looked between Vincent who was standing still on the walkway and between the house.

"Ok, Vincent, turn around and walk away until you are out of sight. Stay there until you are told otherwise, we'll get someone to pick you up."

Vincent brought his hand back up to his ear again to hear us properly as he turned and walked away, _"God, can't you guys just make up your minds."_ He muttered and I was about to shout at him again for lifting up his hand when a shot was fired.

Jacob and I both ducked as another shot was fired, but this time shattering the glass of the window by the driver's seat. Jacob cried in pain and I looked to my side to see him clutching the top of his chest close to his shoulder, blood now seeping onto his hand.

"Jacob, are you alright?" I asked with my head still down.

He nodded but said, "I don't think I'll be able to help you though." He winced again.

"Will you be able to call dispatch?" I asked and he nodded.

I went to open the door but he grabbed me quickly, "What are you doing?"

"I've got to at least check on Riozzi. If they are armed then there is the possible chance they will come get us, or we could make a move now and avoid them escaping. Now call dispatch!" Jacob looked reluctant about letting me go, but nodded and grabbed the receiver.

"Dispatch this is Detective Jacob Black…."

I tried to open the door to my side, but as soon as it opened by just a small amount, a series of shots were fired and the sound of the bullets connecting with the metal of the door made me shut it quickly.

I kept my head down and tried to speak to Vincent via the earpieces.

"Vincent can you hear me? Are you alright?" I asked.

There was some interference but eventually Vincent's voice came through my earpiece.

"_I'm fine, I'm hiding behind a car, but I'm un-armed Cullen, I'm basically a sitting duck!"_

I ran a hand through my hair as I looked over to Jacob who had finished calling dispatch.

"They're going to be a while."

"What? What happened to our SWAT team on standby and the other officers on hold?"

"Apparently Taylor didn't think that there was enough reason to have them."

A couple more shots were fired and we both shielded our heads with our arms as the glass from the windshield shattered and fell down onto us.

"This isn't a good enough reason!" I shouted annoyed, motioning to the firing at us.

"_Edward I've got a slight visual, two of them are coming out of the house. They're armed Edward! Do something now!"_

I lifted my head up and saw the front door open slightly, revealing to figures with machine guns. I quickly reached for my handgun and pulled it out of its holster.

"What do you think you're doing?" Jacob hissed at me as I opened my door again, thankful that shots weren't being fired at it.

"We have to do something. Now stay here and keep checking on our backup." Jacob looked hesitant so I shouted, "That's an order." He nodded knowing he couldn't say anything to a superior officer, but slightly worried knowing I was about to do something stupid by myself.

I carefully stepped out of the car and used the door as cover. I quickly looked up, resting my gun on the door as I fired a few shots through the open window. I ducked back down as return shots were fired.

"_They've gone back in now." _Vincent informed me. I knew it would be helpful if I used him as a visual.

"Would it be safe to make it over there?"

"_Erm…I guess so, but do it quickly."_

"Pass me your gun and your tazer." I told Jacob, he looked slightly hesitant, but he gave it to me without question.

With one last quick glance around the door, I stood up and quickly sprinted to the other side of the road, my gun outstretched before me as I kept looking between the windows and the door of the house. I eventually made it to the front door; my back was pressed to the wall just to the side of the door, my gun raised by my chest.

"This is the Police!" I warned, waiting to see how they would respond. The door I was standing next to was suddenly torn to pieces by bullets. Pieces of wood flew everywhere as it was ripped apart.

When the firing stopped I took a quick look inside. The door was open now that they had shot the lock, but the holes in the door provided me with a layout of part of the ground floor. There was a set of stairs and a hallway that lead further into the house, but I couldn't see if anyone was there.

I stepped back a little to see if I could get a clearer view when I looked at the front window. From my position, I could partially see into the front room from the angle of the blinds. And it was then I saw the three people I've been waiting to arrest.

They weren't panicking as I thought they would, but instead they had this strange sense of calm as if they knew I wouldn't make it.

I tried to see who else was in the room, but all I could make out was the three leaders and perhaps one other figure – they were unarmed, but their bodyguards were certainly not.

I looked back to the car to see Jacob shaking his head at me, and indicating to his watch for time. I knew he wanted me to wait for backup but I couldn't let this chance slip. There was a chance I would die trying to bring them down, but it was a risk I was willing to make. The case had gone on for too long and I wanted it over and done with.

I held my gun out infront of me and stepped carefully into the house. The hallway seemed clear so I looked up the stairs. Two figures suddenly appeared at the top and I quickly fired my gun at them, not giving them a chance to fire back, and caused them to hide in one of the rooms.

"This is the police, surrender and drop your weapons!" I shouted again, my eyes still focused on the top of the stairs.

I noticed a body shift and I raised my gun a bit more. I thought perhaps someone surrendered but there was a flash and I moved behind the door just in time for the firing to continue. Once it stopped I quickly turned back and started to counter-fire. There was a yell and I heard something metal hit the floor. I saw someone on the floor just behind the wall, and I think he was groaning in pain.

I saw another movement and I prepared to shoot again, but I stopped when I saw the other guy step out from behind the wall with his arms up in surrender.

"Throw me your gun." I ordered, and he slowly brought it down and then threw it down the stairs so it landed at my feet. "Get on your knees, hands behind your head."

He did what I said and lifted the hand that wasn't holding the gun to my ear.

"Vincent, I need you to get in here. Bring the plastic restraints we have."

"_Go in there unarmed Cullen, are you out of your mind!"_

"Just do it Vincent, the area is clear, and right now I don't have much time." I said.

He muttered something and I waited for him to bring the handcuffs, fidgeting nervously incase someone else appeared or if they escaped.

Vincent arrived slightly out of breath from running, and I told him to tie up the two men at the top of the stairs, and to get back to me as quickly as possible.

I carried on walking down the hallway, and was quite suspicious as the only sounds you could hear was my heavy breathing, and the occasional footsteps as someone moved in the house. There was one door to the right of me and I was certain that most of the people were behind it, and one further down which I believed led to the front room. I looked behind me to make sure no one was sneaking up on me, took a deep breath and then kicked open the door infront of me.

The guns started firing immediately, and I quickly took cover behind the doorframe again as I let them waste their ammunition. I crouched so it wouldn't give them a bigger target and turned back into the room again.

It was a dining/kitchen area, except the table had been overturned to use as cover, with what was previously on the table in pieces on the floor. I also noticed another door which led outside and knew that it would be used as an alternative exit if they can't make it out the front door. That's as long as they don't have some secret tunnel buried underneath the house.

I picked out the people in the room and started to fire at them; two people behind the table, one person behind the kitchen counter, someone hiding by a doorframe.

I saw two people talking by the back door, so I didn't aim at them. I focused on the others but from the corner of my eye they seemed to be arguing about something, and if it wasn't for the ear-wrecking gunfire, I could probably hear what they were saying.

I was too focused on the others that I didn't notice that the argument had stopped, and I didn't realize one of them had stood up from behind their cover with their gun raised.

My head turned in time to see a man, blond hair pulled back in a ponytail, his face turned in a murderous expression as he jumped over the table he was stood behind, two machine pistols were held in both his hands, and he fired them simultaneously as he started to charge the short distance between us.

I ducked my head just as bullets tore through the air above me.

I knew that he would reach the door within a few seconds, and if he got into the hallway I was a definite dead man.

Quickly calculating my options, and my chances for surviving, I quickly rolled over, so my whole left side was against the floor, the upper half of my body falling in the door way. I lifted my gun and aimed, seeing this unafraid person ablaze with some sort of fury as he continued to fire, but the bullets were still flying a few feet over my head now.

I pulled back the trigger and fired, and the bullets, unluckily for the man infront of me, didn't miss their target.

His body jolted as each bullet hit him, and eventually he fell to the ground. Dead.

There was a screaming in the room, but I wasn't sure who it was coming from, and if that person was injured or not.

I quickly rolled back behind the wall as the others resumed their shooting.

Just as I reloaded my gun, Vincent came around the corner and towards me. I quickly lifted my hand for him to stop so he wouldn't walk into the line of fire.

I pulled out Jacob's gun that I had placed in my holster and slid it across the floor to Vincent, along with a magazine of bullets. The continuous sound of guns firing caused speaking to be difficult, but I was sure the others in that room couldn't hear me.

"I need you to stay here and hold them back."

"What? Where are you going?"

I glanced behind me to the door where I was sure the Volturi leaders were hiding.

"The rest of the house hasn't been cleared." I called out, "Keep you're fire on these until I come back." I ordered and moved away from the doorway keeping my back to the wall as Vincent started to counter fire.

"Vincent?" I called back remembering something. "Pass me some of those plastic restraints."

He crouched behind the wall as he pulled some of the pieces of plastic from his pocket before throwing them to me across the doorway. I nodded in thanks to him and carried on making my way to the last room.

I remembered that from what I saw, the three leaders were, as I know of, unarmed. Hopefully they didn't have another weapon on their ankle or taped to the top of the fireplace. Also, I wasn't sure if they were the only people in there. I would just have to hope for the best.

I quickly kicked down the door and entered with my gun raised, and pointing at the three leaders.

There was movement to my right and I saw one of their guards start to lift their weapon, but I was quicker and shot him in his shoulder, causing him to drop his gun to the floor and fall onto his knees. I moved to him quickly and kicked the gun away from him, my gun changing position from each person in the room.

"Don't do anything stupid." I said to another man behind the three leaders, whose arm was slowly reaching into his jacket, but pulled it away when I spotted him. "On your knees, all of you." I ordered, and they all slowly got down on their knees with their arms raised.

"Why Detective Cullen, I didn't expect you to drop in." The one in the middle said, Aro. I could recognize him easily, especially as I looked at photos of him and his brothers almost everyday.

"Well I'm guessing there are a lot of things you didn't expect from me Aro."

"Fair point." He said back, but then kept his mouth closed.

I didn't want to start handcuffing them when there was a chance they could ambush me if I had my back turned. Plus, I didn't know what was happening with Vincent. In the silence of the room, I was surprised that I couldn't hear the gunfire from the kitchen.

"Riozzi? Everything alright?" I asked, quite wary incase they had got passed him and were making their way silently to me.

"Everything's fine." He shouted back, and I heard the gun fire quickly resume.

It was only a few minutes before I saw the flash of blue lights outside the window of the house and I smiled to myself.

"Edward?" Vincent came running into the room behind me. "We have a problem, a bunch of them escaped from the kitchen." I sighed, and realized I shouldn't have counted so much on an amateur.

"Don't worry." I said as I motioned for him to keep his gun trained on the others while I got out the plastic restraints from my pocket. "I've got who I wanted." And then I arrested the three men who I have been trying to get for years. 

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Here you go! Things will start to kick off from here! There won't be any sneak previews this time, but only because I'll be posting the next chapter either this fri or next monday as it's only short in comparison.<br>****  
>Thanks for reading, and I want to thank everyone who has alerted or favourited this story, it means a lot. Please review and let me know your thoughts on this chap :)<strong>

**Thanks again,  
>Jaimie x<strong>


	9. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

**~~*~~  
>? POV<br>~*~**

The black SUV swerved dangerously close to yet another vehicle on the highway. The eight gang members had just narrowly escaped being arrested, and now they were driving full speed on the highway. Each person within the car were having different reactions regarding what had just occurred.

The driver of the car, Alec, had his hands clenched around the steering wheel, and would nervously look through the rear view mirror and make sure there wasn't any police following them. Alec was trusted to do this job; he had been the one delivering the list of clients for the bosses to use. Similarly, there was another list containing names of those who had failed to meet certain demands, and were soon to be punished, or even killed, and what made him feel worse was he had left those lists at the house.

He couldn't shake the feeling that this was his fault. Despite the fact someone else had realised there were undercover cops watching the house, and someone else who took the first shot at them, he kept believing that they must have been there _because _of him.

Alec checked the mirror one more time to make sure he wasn't being followed and then turned quickly off the highway.

Another man, Royce King, was sitting next to him in the passenger seat. He on the other hand was pumped up with adrenaline, and didn't fully comprehend what they had just gone through as he was too hyper to care.

The other three people sitting in the backseat, including Alec's sister Jane, were all just as shaken up as the driver. All were silent and staring out of the windows of the SUV into the night.

Two other people were sitting in the far end of the van, with an extra person sitting between them looking out the back window. A woman sat on the right hand side, her head leaning against the window pane, a tear rolling down her cheek. Although she was looking through the tinted windows, and watched various buildings and greenery go past, all she could see was the pain in her fiancé's face.

She shut her eyes in an attempt to clear away the image, but it would just reappear and haunt her. She knew it would haunt her for the rest of her life, and she wouldn't feel better until she took revenge on the one who took away her boyfriend's life.

The SUV finally rolled to a stop outside one of the gangs many safe houses. This particular building was just outside of Chicago, and it was said that they should only come here incase of an emergency. No one argued the decision to arrive here as they all made their way up to the warehouse doors silently.

They stayed together as the group made their way to the main office. They had to tell them what had happened. That not one, but all of their leaders had been arrested, and would most likely be charged and sent to prison. Alec ran his hand through his hair nervously as he knew it would most likely be him to tell the others the bad news.

They eventually reached the end of the corridor, a closed door infront of them. Alec swallowed nervously as he opened the door and stepped into the office, followed by the others. The room was filled with a few members of the gang who were trusted by the leaders themselves to control certain divisions of the state.

They looked slightly shocked as they saw the eight people walk into the room, all shaken and silent, Aro, Caius and Marcus not walking in with them. Although they didn't realise it yet, with the three leaders in lock-up, it meant the selected few people in the room would be seen as the new people in charge.

The seven escapen members all looked to Alec encouragingly for him to break the news. Jane held his hand within hers to help calm him.

One of the men already in the room, Laurent, stood up and walked towards the group. He took in the expressions on their faces and was immediately concerned.

"What's happened?"

Alec breathed in a shaky breath whilst Jane squeezed his hand in encouragement. "We got caught." There were murmurs around the room when he said that and he continued, "The cops knew what we were up to and there was a shoot out. We managed to escape but some people didn't make it out."

"How many? Did we lose anyone?" Laurent asked.

"We're not sure how many were still in there, but they got the Family." Everyone's eyes widened at the mention of the Family – Aro, Caius and Marcus. Alec took a quick glance over to the woman who was standing at the back of the group, her head leaning against the wall and tears falling down her cheeks. "And we lost James." He added.

Laurent had been good friends with James and on hearing this news he immediately felt bad for his fiancé. He quickly walked over to her and embraced her in a hug. She was comforted by the gesture, even though the pain she felt was still overwhelming.

The whispers were getting louder and it was clear people were starting to panic. Laurent sensed this and stepped back into the middle of the room and hushed everyone before he spoke.

"We can't fall apart because our leaders were taken, if we do then it shows we are weak. They may be the foundation to this organisation but we don't need all of their help to run it. They would expect us to continue with this even if they are put in prison."

Laurent turned to Alec then, "Which officer was it that made the arrest tonight? Can you remember what he looks like?"

"Sure, it was that Cullen guy. His partners were injured outside so we couldn't get a glimpse of them, but…"

"What? His partners were outside and that cop barged in by himself?" Alec remained silent as he realised where Laurent was going with this. He stepped back so he could look at all eight of the people who had escaped. "There was only one guy but none of you could've taken him out!"

The group remained silent as he continued, "So this Detective is able to enter a house filled with more than a dozen armed people, and is able to make it out alive, taking out one of us and arresting the people he has been intending to arrest for over a year!"

"We just panicked. We knew that we had to get out of there fast."

"But your little cowardly decision has been costly to us. Do you realise what will happen now that they have the Family? They can get us all. They will track us down and arrest us; it will be the best series of arrests one single cop has made, due to your idiocy!"

"We have to do something about this." A voice said from behind of Laurent, "Are you sure you weren't followed and we are currently safe?" His expression clearly showing he was not happy with this turn of events.

Alec nodded, "Yeah, for now."

Laurent stared at a small mark on the floor as he thought of the best way to sort out this mess.

With an idea forming in his head, he looked up and clicked his finger as he pointed to a man beside Alec, whose name was Antonio or Ant as they usually called him. "You, I want you to do research for me, find out anything about this Detective Cullen or the case he's leading. Also try and find out when the trial will be. Get me anything, go!" He waved the guy off and he ran out of the room to do what he said.

"What about our insider, Riley, any news from him yet?"

"No he hasn't given us any news yet. He'll probably find out news about the trial and stuff before we do."

"What about the Family?" Someone else asked, "Are they going to just stay in prison?"

"If they stay there they could possibly get the death penalty." Another person added.

Laurent was thoughtful for another moment until he spoke up again. "We can't chance a visit to them, even if we pose as their lawyers, they'll automatically associate us with them and we'll be under questioning. But we still need them. How about getting them out of jail?"

Someone in the room laughed and Laurent recognised it as a 'supposed' friend of his, Ryan. "What? like a prison break? I don't think so. If this Cullen guy has been chasing our tails for years and is able to get not just some of us, but _the_ Family, then I'm sure he'll be doing everything he can to stop them from getting out."

"No not like that." Laurent contradicted, "I mean get them out before they even have to go to trial."

"You know your ideas are starting to sound really stupid." Ryan told him.

"Well just consider it because I doubt you have any better ideas." Ryan stayed quiet. "Thought so."

The guy Laurent had sent to do some research, Antonio, came running back in then with a couple of sheets in his hand. He moved over to a table and spread the sheets across the surface. The people in the room started to crowd around the table.

Laurent nodded to the guy for him to start talking.

"Alright we got these when we heard he took our case, this…" He said pointing to a picture of a police officer with bronze hair and green eyes, "…of course is Edward Cullen, he's running this show. He was also the one who made the arrest on the Fami-"

"You're telling us things we already know." Ryan said impatiently.

"Just let him finish." Laurent said back annoyed, and turned back to Ant.

"Okay, so he made the arrest on the Family, _and_ he was the one who shot James."

At this news the woman who was standing silently at the back of the room lifted her head up and listened intently on the words he just said. She quickly moved across the room and made her way to the table, pushing aside some other guys and looking down onto the array of sheets.

She spotted the focus of everyone's attention immediately. In the middle of the sheets was a larger piece of paper with just a photo on it. The picture showed a police officer, with an unusual shade of blonde or brown hair and pale skin. Green eyes stared up from the photo, and the woman almost felt like he was staring right at her, teasing her.

A flash of what occurred earlier that night flashed through her mind. The officer bursting into the room. James ushering her out of the house. Turning around and shooting at the officer to slow him down. The cop taking a shot and hitting him in his chest. James' pained look as he fell to the ground, his lifeless eyes looking at her.

Her hands clenched into fists as she started to feel the anger rise. That _Cullen_ was going to pay for it somehow.

She jumped startled when she felt someone's hand on her own. She looked up to see Laurent looking at her with sympathy, and she hadn't noticed the room had gone silent and they we're all looking at her.

She relaxed her hands, and she felt her tears rolling slowly down her cheeks. She looked down in a mixture of embarrassment for crying infront of all the men.

"Victoria?" Laurent said quietly, and she looked up slowly and met his eyes, "We'll get him back okay? I promise." All Victoria could do was nod and then left the room.

Laurent watched her walk out the room and then turned back to Anthony, nodding for him to continue.

"Alright, now when he first took on the case some of the guys got a little background info on him. He lived here in Chicago and then moved up to a small town called Forks, Washington, after his mother died." He pushed forward another photo along with a newspaper article. It showed a picture of a middle-aged woman, along with the headline _**Serial Killer Strikes Again – woman is 15**__**th**__** victim of Seattle Killings. **_

"But," Ant continued, "her death was because of us. Some initiation thing I guess that happened up in Seattle." Laurent nodded his head as he remembered the numerous killings that happened in Seattle. A group of around ten people wanted to join the gang, and were told to do something that would earn them a right in the gang. Unfortunately they weren't inconspicuous with their killings, and the police were automatically looking at the Volturi as their number one suspects.

"He dropped out of college to become a cop, and within a couple of years he was already being considered for becoming a Detective. As we know he took our case almost two years ago, and will most likely close it within the next couple of months."

"Okay, what about family? Friends?"

"Erm, well his mum is dead – obviously, and his dad died when he was young. The only immediate family he has is his Uncle and Aunty who he lived with in Forks. He keeps in touch with some of his old high school friends; he is particular close with one friend who works with him in the force, a Jasper Hale, I think he's his co-partner or something for the case."

Laurent glanced over some of the photos another time until his eyes landed on one that caught his attention. He reached over and picked it up. On it was Detective Cullen, standing next to a young woman around the same age, with a young boy about two years old. Their arms wrapped around each other and the little boy and they looked pretty close.

"Who's this?" He asked, handing over the photo and pointing to the woman in the picture.

Ant looked at the woman and then figured out who she was. He grabbed another sheet and passed it to Laurent.

"This," He started as he handed the other piece of paper to Laurent, "is Isabella Swan. His _wife._" Laurent was shocked as he looked down to the sheet. On it was another photo of Isabella in a wedding dress, and standing next to her was Cullen in a suit, both wearing exuberant smiles on their faces.

"They've been together since high school, moved in together up in Chicago, and then got married soon after."

"And the child?"

"Their son." Laurent turned to him astonished. "Mason Cullen, but unfortunately for them he was kidnapped when he was three years old." He pushed another newspaper article infront of him with the headline _**Child taken from park before parent's eyes**_. "He's never been found. Well he was considered to be dead after a few years because he was so young, totally tore them apart."

"How come we didn't know about this?" Laurent asked.

Ant shrugged but Ryan said, "We did know about it." Laurent turned to him as he continued, "It was only a bit of info, we didn't take it serious or anything, it was just something we could know about him."

"Didn't anyone think of using this," he shook the sheet infront of his face, "against him in the first place."

"What would it have done anyway? It won't be like the movies where he'll do everything he can to save her, they're probably not even in love anymore." Ryan said.

"They're still together aren't they?"

"Yes but-"

"Then why didn't we use her in the first place? And if not her someone else in his family."

"I-I-I'm not sure; I guess we didn't think of it before." Laurent didn't answer but just hung his head; _all of this could have been avoided._

"Well it doesn't matter now I guess." He finally said, "But I think I have a way of sorting it out."

The room was silent as Laurent told them his idea for getting the Family out of jail and hopefully securing their freedom. After telling them what he thought everyone remained silent as they thought over what he said.

"It wouldn't work." Ryan dismissed immediately, "It could be a risk and a complete failure. You'd have better success holding up a bank."

"Or," Alec said joining in, "it would still be a risk, but it would be a great success." Laurent nodded at him, "I'm in then." He said looking at Laurent.

Calls of 'I'm in," were heard in the room and Laurent smiled at everyone's cooperation. He turned lastly to Ryan who looked annoyed at the outcome, but he just nodded his head and said "Me too."

"Alright then, let's get this sorted." Laurent said clapping his hands together, and they started on their plan to get their leaders out of jail.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Can you guess what his plan is? :P I know it's not E's or B's POV but I thought it would be good to include this chap to show what they were thinking at this time.<strong>

**Thanks for reading, let me know what you thought of this chapter, sneak peeks will be given again if you review :)**

**Will update next week :)**

**Thanks again,  
>Jaimie x<strong>


	10. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

**~~*~~  
>Edward's POV<br>~*~**

I took a breath of fresh air as I stepped out of the house and into the commotion outside. Police cars, paramedics, even the swat team were all lined up on the road outside the house.

I walked down the front steps and towards a nearby ambulance where Jacob was being seen to by a paramedic. He winced as they put a bit of antiseptic onto his wound, but you could see he was trying to look unfazed by the injury; my guess to impress the female paramedic who was helping him.

"How are you doing Black?" I asked him but he scowled at me and ignored my question.

"You had some nerve going in like that all by yourself; did you want some sort of death wish?"

I rolled my eyes at him but he just continued, "Apparently Taylor is pissed at you."

"Hey, I got the job done didn't I?" I said to him getting rather annoyed.

"Yeah you did, well done Cullen" He said sarcastically, and I fought the urge to turn away from him.

"What's the damage?" I asked to the paramedic tending to him, and ignored his comment.

"Bullet wound to his upper chest, no major damage but he will need some surgery to get it removed. It's too deep to get it out now, and we can't leave it in for risk of it getting infected. So we'll have to take you back to the hospital Officer." Jacob frowned. I'm betting he wanted a battle wound to show to his mates.

"How about you sir?" The woman asked me, "I think it would be best if I took a look at you."

"No it's fine. I'm fine." I assured, "See you at the hospital Black." I said to him and walked away from the ambulance.

I was hoping to just get away from this mess and be done with it for the night, but I knew I had to stay. Especially after I spotted Taylor talking to a couple of officers, well not talking, rather shouting at them and pointing to behind the house. He turned his head and caught sight of me, his face turned murderous and I was suddenly afraid of losing my job.

He seemed to have excused himself from the two, now scared, officers, and made his way through the crowd and to me.

"What the hell happened back here Cullen?"

"Well-" I started.

"I don't want to hear it." He interrupted me and I closed my mouth, slightly confused at what he wanted. "You put yourself, Black and Riozzi in danger, well bearing in mind both men were injured I guess that speaks for itself. Then you put your own life at risk by going into a building full of armed men without any back-up or protective clothing.

"You didn't get everyone. About half-a-dozen of them escaped through the back door. Did you not think of any safety of your fellow officers when you realised they were left alone, and unharmed?"

As we were speaking a trolley rolled passed us with a black body bag on top, no doubt the man I had shot earlier in the kitchen. Taylor noticed it as it wheeled by and he shook his head. "Now what did he do?" He asked, referring to the corpse as the coroners took it away.

"Sir, I was simply defending mys-"

"I don't care Cullen. You've created a mess here that we are going to have to sort out."

"I got the three men that we wanted didn't I? The Volturi leaders." I said back angrily.

"With what Cullen? What have you got that can keep them behind bars, because I simply can't find a reason good enough that'll keep them there."

"Well…" I started to think, scraping ideas around so I didn't look like what I had done was a waste of time, "we've got them shooting at an officer, or at least accessory to it, injuring them, that's assault, plus, forensics are in there now that will find anything else that can tie them to the series of murders or whatever they were all gathered here tonight for."

"Well maybe if you would have decided to not provoke them, and stay undercover, then perhaps this could have been sorted with a simple warrant to the premises."

"They shot at us first Taylor."

"Why?" He asked back and I remained silent, knowing that by putting the blame on a new officer wouldn't make me look so good to him. "Exactly." He said back to me, "You're lucky I'm not stripping you of your badge right now and putting you on leave for a while. You're too unfocused and now it's affecting your work."

I bowed my head down at what he was saying.

"You wouldn't have made those decisions you made tonight if you were in your right mind, but right now I need you to work, focused and determined to close this case. Now I want you to go to the hospital, and get yourself checked out. Also you might as well see what's happening with the others that you may have injured in there." He said pointing to the house.

He called a paramedic over for me and then walked away, leaving me to try and persuade the paramedic again that I didn't need complete medical attention. I just asked if I could just hop in the same ambulance with Black to save any trouble, but I had to show them my police badge so they could let me.

Jacob didn't speak to me during the trip to the hospital, just glared at me every so often to show he was still mad at me after what I done. I just ignored his stares and thought over the fact I had just arrested the men I have been chasing down for over a year. Within days I would hopefully be able to close the case that Detectives before me could not do.

We arrived at the hospital pretty quickly, and they quickly stretchered Jacob through to A&E, whilst another paramedic walked me through to help me find another Doctor so I could be seen to.

He done the necessary checks, but I knew that I was alright. Once the Doctor confirmed my thoughts, I left the room but decided that I might as well wait in the hospital since I was going to have to wait and see how Jacob was doing anyway.

I found a desk within the ward I was in and made my way over to the receptionist sitting behind it. I pulled out my badge so that I didn't have to deal with her making excuses on why she couldn't talk to me.

"Do you have a list of names for the people who were just admitted? They were all brought in at the same time at about…" I took a quick glance at my watch and calculated quickly, "…9:15, a few had gunshot wounds…"

She typed some things on the computer and I waited patiently to see if anything would show.

"Ah yes here we go, about five people were brought in at that time, let's see…Stefan Wright, Jacob Black, Edward Cullen…"

"Yes that's the list. Does that come with their room numbers?"

She checked the screen then nodded her head.

"Alright then, can you print off a copy for me please?"

She nodded her head again and typed a few things again before the printer behind her came to life and started to print off the list. Once done, she slid on her chair to the printer to collect the paper then slid back, handing me the still warm paper as I said thanks to her.

"Anything else, Officer?"

"No thank you." I said, moving away from the desk and scanning the list.

**Name:** **Room No.:**

_Stefan Wright …235 – Armed officer present_

_Jacob Black … In Surgery_

_Edward Cullen…Discharged_

_Vincent Riozzi …392_

_Matt Spencer … 229 – Armed officer present_

I kind of expected Jacob would be in surgery by now to remove the bullet, but I didn't realise Vincent was badly injured. I assumed the other two were from the house; one from the top of the stairs, the other from the front room.

I would need to speak to them two later, but I thought I might as well talk to Riozzi first. First to see what is wrong with him and also to ask him how the other members escaped from the kitchen.

It's not that I was extremely bothered about this. I had just arrested the three main guys in all this so it wasn't something I was going to fret over. But still, he allowed some criminals to escape, and that's pretty bad for us, especially if this sort of info manages to get out into the public.

I checked the time and decided I might as well speak to all of them now. Didn't want them asleep when I did actually want to interrogate them.

I made my way through the hallways, not as busy since visiting hours were over and patients were falling asleep, the hospital preparing for its night shift.

I caught sight of one of the room numbers closest to me which said '271', so I gathered I was on the right floor, I just need to go in the right direction.

I managed to find room 235 first. It wasn't that hard to spot seeing as there was an officer standing outside, and room 229 wasn't that far as I could see another officer further down the corridor. I stepped up to the room, seeing as it was indeed room 235, showed my badge to the officer and he opened the door to let me in.

I nodded my head to him in thanks as I passed him and he shut the door after me, leaving me alone with this Stefan Wright. He was awake when I walked in, and thinking about it I hadn't done that much damage that would cause him to be knocked out by the medication or for him to be asleep.

He just watched me as I walked around the room and sat in one of the armchairs there, paying no attention to him as I sat in silence and pretended I was making notes about him.

It was a weird technique that I had, and sometimes it would take hours to completely work. I basically ignored the suspect, (bearing in mind that they occasionally ignore me if I ask them questions first anyway), and wait for him or her to just break. It was some psychological thing, and they start to think about what I may already know, what I might ask them and it gets them a bit worried. Fortunately for me, even though it takes a lot of time, the outcome is I take control of the conversation and get the answers I need.

Two hours after I had entered Stefan Wright's room, I had left with a notebook full of answered questions. I didn't know if any of them were lies; the Volturi guard would have been brought up deceitful, tricking their way or lying out of situations so that no member would be caught.

I walked down the corridor and to the room with the other officer. I yawned on my way, and I looked down to check my watch. It was just after 11:30, and although this would be an alright time for me, today had been a long day, and I was exhausted.

I felt almost like kicking myself when the officer outside the door told me the guy inside, Matt Spencer was asleep, and would be pretty drowsy due to the drugs, saying it would be best to see him tomorrow morning. I just nodded, quite grateful that I would be getting some sleep.

I thought that I should briefly check on Vincent as well, bearing in mind the quicker I speak to him, the clearer his memory will be, and hopefully he would tell me how people escaped.

I took the elevator up to the floor and asked a nurse if she could point me in the direction of Vincent's room. She argued that visiting hours had _way_ passed, but I showed my badge again and she remained silent as she guided me to his room.

He was watching something on the television when I walked in, the light from the screen illuminating his face in the dark room. I couldn't see much, and I hit my shin on some sort of cabinet as I entered the room. I cursed under my breath and searched for the light switch on the wall. I flicked it on and saw as Vincent jumped back in shock when he saw me.

"Didn't you hear me come in?" I asked incredulously.

He shook his head and picked up the remote from next to him, aiming at the TV and pressing a button. "Take a look at this." He nodded his head to the screen and I made my way around to the side of the bed to get a better view of the television. "We're breaking news!" He said proudly, smiling at the screen as it headlined _**Shoot out between Chicago PD and the Volturi gang have lead to leaders arrest, one dead and four injured.**_

"They keep mentioning mine and Black's names 'cause we were the heroic cops that got injured. I'm still trying to figure out who died though and which ones were injured."

The image changed to an image taken from a helicopter after the shoot out had taken place, after the swat arrived and the paramedics were checking people. I noticed they didn't mention anything about the other members that had escaped. Public well-being I guess.

"What happened when I left you?" I asked, wanting to know how they could have escaped. Plus, did he even worry about Jacob's safety when he realised people had gotten out?

"Huh?" Vincent said; his concentration on the television and his fifteen minutes of fame.

I quickly snatched the remote out of his hand and turned the television off. "How did they escape?" I questioned differently.

"I thought you weren't bothered so much about that."

I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. "Not at first, but they are a part of a violent gang, so that means the publics safety is at risk. Now, what happened? Not one person in that room was arrested. The only person who was in that room who was taken away, was taken away in a body bag."

Vincent's eyes shot up to meet mine. "That was the one who died?" I nodded. "Do you know what his name was?" He asked, his voice was a little choked up, but he quickly coughed afterwards.

"I think his name was James something… I'm not sure."

Something passed behind his eyes, some sort of emotion that I couldn't read from him.

"That was probably you're first death on the job wasn't it?" I asked, forgetting that he had only recently joined the force.

"I've never seen anyone dying before, and knowing now that he's dead…" He shuddered.

"Are you going to be alright with that Vincent? It can be pretty traumatic the first time someone sees it."

He shook his head. "No I'll be fine. I'll have to get used to it, this job comes with its risks."

I nodded and my eyes glanced over the chair that was in the corner of the room. Soft, with cushions and a pillow, not the usual plastic chair you had next to a bed. I longed to just sit in that chair.

"So what happens now?" Vincent asked, and I gave up and sat in the comfy looking chair, my whole body relaxing as I sank down into the cushion.

"Well, there's a lot of paperwork. I have to interrogate the ones we arrested, especially Aro, Caius and Marcus. By then we should have word back from forensics to see if they have anything to solidify their places in jail."

"Huh, sounds fun."

"You have to fill a report as well, to describe what went on tonight."

His shoulders slumped, and then his expression changed as if he was remembering something else. His face paled slightly and he looked a little upset.

"Are you sure you're okay? When you see a dead person it's pretty bad, especially if they've died infront of you…"

"Can you stop saying the word dead and die?" He suddenly asked, his voice rose from anger. "It's freaking me out."

I nodded and apologised, sitting back further in the chair.

It was silent for a while, pretty tense after Riozzi's outburst. I wasn't sure whether he would be okay after seeing something like that. When I had seen my first death out on the field, the shock didn't kick in until I was at home. When you're the one who caused the death though, it's magnified tenfold.

My first kill had been a guy, probably in his thirties, who was holding up a small convenience store. When I arrived at the scene he pulled the gun out on me. I reasoned for a while, but I saw his hand flinch and before I knew it I had shot my gun and the criminal was on the ground. I had aimed for his shoulder area, but missed and pierced his lung. He died later in the hospital.

But that feeling afterwards, when you've killed another human being. At first I felt dirty, like his blood was still on my hands but it wouldn't wash off. The shock had been worse, and I remember how Bella had comforted me through it all. Not disgusted because I had killed someone, but just thankful that I was alright.

"Do you have to go see Black?" Vincent whispered, pulling me out of my thoughts.

"He was in surgery; he's probably sedated so I won't be able to speak to him until tomorrow."

"Are you going to go home?" He asked, and I turned my head to him, noticing his subtle way of wanting me out of here. I was surprised he didn't even ask about Jacob.

"Nope. It's late and I'm tired so I probably shouldn't drive." I said, and yawning once I finished.

"Alright, well I'm going asleep, so do you need any more questions asked?"

I scanned my brain to see if there was anything else, and then I remembered something obvious.

"You didn't answer my previous question."

He huffed and rolled his eyes, slightly annoyed he couldn't go back to sleep.

"One of them jumped at me whilst I was reloading. He wasn't armed so he just beat me up. It must have been a distraction or something because the others must have left then."

"Why didn't they kill you?"

He shrugged. "Maybe they didn't want killing a cop on their record."

I nodded my head in agreement, but inside I didn't think that was the main reason why they had left him. For one, if he had just knocked down an officer, why didn't he take Vincent's gun and come after me? Or all of them ambush me?

"What are your injuries?" I asked, realising I hadn't actually asked how he was doing until now.

"A cracked rib and a busted face, I needed stitches." He turned his head so I could see the other side of his face which was obstructed from my vision and along his right cheekbone was a cut and tape from where they stitched him up.

"At least it wasn't anything life threatening."

He nodded, as if he had just accepted that I was glad he was alright.

"Any other questions?"

I thought for anymore, but in the end I just shook my head.

"Okay then." He muttered, and rolled on his side so his back was to me. "G'night."

"Night." I answered back, and my eyes fluttered close for a moment, but I was so tired I didn't bother reopening them.

* * *

><p>My neck hurt like hell and I was sure I had lost the feeling in my bum. I shifted a little, slightly restricted in the chair that I had used as a bed for the night. I checked my watch and saw that it was half nine in the morning. For me and my working hours, that was like a lie-in.<p>

"I didn't know you stayed the night." I heard Vincent say from next to me. I rubbed my eyes and looked up to see Vincent awake and watching the TV. I didn't even realise it was on.

"I was exhausted, so I thought I might as well." I replied, as I stood up and stretched.

"There's coffee there. Nurse brought it in." He said nodding to a jar of coffee, which I helped myself to a cup. "I think she was a bit miffed that you stayed the night."

I shrugged and looked up to the television, it was still on the news channel and the story of the arrest of the Volturi leaders was still being shown.

"They're trying to explain what happened, but they keep getting the details wrong."

"Taylor probably spoke to them to clear things up."

"There was a small segment on you y'know. About how great you did on working this case. They're considering putting you up for some sort of award."

"Nice." I nodded appreciatively.

We continued watching the news whilst I finished my coffee, and then I stood up and placed it in the bin. "I'll have to go see Black; he'll probably be awake now."

"Alright then, well I'll see you later Cullen."

I said bye to him and then left the room, looking for a nurse to see if they would know what room he was in. I quickly found one and asked her and she fortunately knew, and told me to go to the next floor and what way to go to get to the room.

I found it without any trouble and was ready to open the door when I heard voices talking inside. I stepped to the side to have a look through the window they have and tried to peek around the blinds to see who was with Jacob. Eventually I saw them sitting on the foot of the bed. A woman, her hair was long and brown, her figure petite…

I moved back to the door and placed my ear besides it to try and listen in.

I couldn't hear what they were saying, but I recognised the voice, and the woman. It was Bella. Of course she would have visited one of her best friends, I should have remembered.

I heard laughing inside so I lightly knocked and opened the door to let myself in.

Both Bella and Jacob turned to see who was coming in, but with Bella, her whole demeanour changed. She immediately stopped laughing, and her expression saddened slightly, yet I could still see the anger behind her eyes. She looked good though. I'm glad she never became all depressive and couldn't be bothered to do put an effort in clothes or hair style. Not that I would think I could do that to someone, but she looked like she was doing well.

"Hey Edward." Jacob spoke and I noticed Bella turned away from me. "I didn't realise you stayed the night."

"Yeah, I still need to interrogate one of the guys, and I needed to check up on you anyway."

"Aww thanks Cullen; I'm doing great as you can see." He nodded to the bandage wrapped around his chest. "I'm just gutted that I done nothing and got hurt but you go inside the place guns blazing and don't have a scratch on you."

I just shook my head, but Bella spoke out. "What?"

I looked down to her and noticed she was looking back to me with her eyes slightly wide.

"Yeah it was on the news all night, didn't you see it?" Jacob asked and she looked away from me and she looked a bit ashamed.

She shook her head and then glanced back up to me.

"You probably have things to talk about, I'll just leave." She muttered and was about to stand up.

"No stay Bella, Edward could you give us a few more minutes?"

"Sure." I nodded and stood back outside the room.

**~~*~~  
>Bella POV<br>~*~**

When Edward left the room I placed my head in my hands.

"I figured it out last night." Jacob whispered from besides me and I lifted my head back up. "Before the shoot out I figured out it was Cullen who is…well was your husband."

I turned my head away a little as I felt a small pain in my heart thinking about him and the divorce.

"I just kept thinking your surname was Swan because that's how I knew you before, I just forgot and didn't realise your last name was Cullen." I smiled and raised an eyebrow at him.

"Come on Bells, you know I'm not that stupid." I laughed and he smiled back at me.

"I just want to tell you something though." He said, and his hand moved to hold my own. I didn't move it away, but I wasn't comfortable with the way this direction could be going.

"When you realised that Cullen was in the middle of that fight, I saw your reaction." I sighed, a bit thankful he wasn't talking about something else, but not liking the telling off I was sure to get. "I know what he did to you and frankly I don't think he deserves your care or anything else, you understand?"

"And you've got to realise that he was a huge part in my life, if something would have happened to him I still would have cared, whether I love him or I don't."

"Well he is not worth it Bella." He left it at that and didn't say anymore about it. "Although I did nearly punch his lights out when I realised who it was." He muttered.

"Jake." I warned.

"Don't worry I won't do anything." He went to lift his hands up but then winced when he remembered he couldn't with one arm. "But I just need you to know that as your friend, I would never hurt you, you got that?"

I nodded and he smiled at me, "Now I think Edward wants to speak to me, so give me a hug because I can't be bothered shuffling over."

I laughed and stood up so I could move to the top of the bed and give Jacob a hug, being careful not to hurt his wound.

"Ow ow ow." He said and I pulled back quickly but he was laughing at me.

"Don't do that." I laughed as I hit his other arm lightly. "I'll see you later Jacob."

"Bye Bella." He said giving me his warming smile as I turned and left the room.

I opened the door to see Edward opposite it with his head down and his leg up on the wall as he leaned against it. His head lifted up when he heard the door open and his eyes met with mine.

His mouth opened to say something but I just turned away and walked down the corridor.

**~~*~~  
>Edward's POV<br>~*~**

I watched Bella's retreating figure down the hall and then entered Jacob's room.

Although I didn't want to be rude and curious and eavesdrop, instead I looked through the little gap in the blinds and watched how she acted when she was with him.

She was happy. Nothing else. Just happy, and that is all I wanted for her. That is what I was hoping the divorce would give her. Not saying I would want her to start dating Jacob, but it was just seeing her with another man who could make her happy that made me think that maybe it wasn't a bad decision after all.

* * *

><p>"What do you mean you let someone else interrogate them? I thought that would be my job?" I yelled.<p>

After visiting Jacob and speaking to the other Volturi member, I returned to the station planning the words and questions I was going to ask the three leaders. I had dreamt of the moment I would interrogate Aro, and put the whole thing to bed.

However they were already in the interrogation rooms, the questioning underway. I pretty much sprinted to Taylor's office to ask him what the hell was happening.

"Calm yourself down Cullen." Taylor ordered. "You've done your part, now I'm letting Agent Weber and the FBI finish the case."

I ran my hand through my hair in annoyance. "But this was my case, not the FBI's."

"I know that Cullen, but after everything that has happened recently I just think it would be best to just leave it to them. They know what they are doing. You still take credit for closing the case anyways."

"I do."

Taylor nodded. "You were right about tying them to something. CSIs found evidence to tie them to a hefty number of crimes; debt repayments, hit lists, weapons deals, including some from a couple of years ago which relate to your mother's death."

My head snapped up. "I'm sorry sir?"

He smiled. "Don't play stupid Cullen, I knew about your mother's death in Seattle, it was supposedly by the Volturi. When you decided to take on this case I knew that was the main reason, seeing as we both knew it wasn't the Volturi who kidnapped your son. Of course I thought of emotional setbacks you could have, however I decided to take a chance on you and I guess it paid off.

"Anyways CSI found quite a bit of information on a few murders in the past, and the papers that were delivered that evening were of the names of people who owed money to them or who were to be killed. So you did a good job. We've got them."

"Hopefully, but we have to hope a jury have the same opinion. The Volturi are so cunning and sly they'll end up having members in the jury."

"Don't be so pessimistic Cullen; I'm positive any court will give these bastards the punishments they deserve."

"So when is the hearing?"

"Unfortunately, not for another couple of months."

My face dropped. "What?"

He sighed. "It's going to take some time Cullen, and a few months is the earliest we can get it. But don't worry because they aren't granted bail, they're staying in jail no matter what."

"Thanks Taylor, for letting me take this case."

He nodded to me. "I just hope you have the same determination and dedication in other jobs."

"Will do." I answered, and then left his office in a happier mood.

* * *

><p>I continued staring at the piece of paper infront of me, willing for it to somehow disappear and forget that I even thought of this. Bella's signature was there, from when she scribbled it down then left the house in anger. I wasn't that surprised from her reaction.<p>

But it wasn't as though I had cheated on her, and what I had said that week to her had been the truth, well mostly.

I did want her to have a happy life; with a good relationship were a husband who would spend more time with her rather than his job. She deserved as much, and I hadn't been providing it for her. Watching her at the hospital earlier today with Jacob just showed me how much she could have without me in her life.

I didn't want to be ruining her life being a terrible husband. As much as it killed me to say the words, and to hand her those papers, I knew it was best to just let her go, and allow her to live her life happily with a man who could give her what she wanted.

Since I asked her, I had spent most of the time sitting at my desk in my office trying to force myself to pick up a pen and sign my own name so the papers could be finalised. It was this reason why I decided to do it myself. A lawyer would just to it for you, but I wanted to make sure I was positive in my decisions.

As you can see from my stalling I didn't want to be separated from Bella, so I felt completely stupid in asking for a divorce. I thought this was what I wanted. Not being tied down any longer,_ to make her happy_. I picked up the pen and brought it down to the paper to sign my name…

"Edward?" Someone asked from the door and I looked up to see Jasper at my office door, his head peeking in but his body partially out of the door.

"Yeah." I answered, briefly looking down to the unsigned papers, and put them away in my draw so Jasper couldn't figure out anything.

He looked at me suspiciously as he watched me put the papers away but he ignored it and looked back to me. "Some of the guys are heading out for a celebratory drink, you want to come?" I looked over to the clock were it said it was quarter to five. A few drinks couldn't hurt; I could mope over my divorce but put on a façade and pretend I'm celebrating the arrest. No one would be waiting for me at home anyway.

"Yeah, sure. Just let me get my things." Jasper nodded at me and left the room. I started packing up my things and my eyes looked over to the closed draw and lingered there for a while. I put my hand out to open the draw but pulled it back quickly. I debated my options briefly before reopening the draw and pulling the divorce papers out and laying them on my desk.

I got my pen and brought it down to the dotted line where I was supposed to sign my name, but I paused. My mind reeled back to memories of Bella and I when we were together. Perhaps it was my deep-deep sub-conscience, telling me what I was doing was wrong.

I closed my eyes as the impact of the situation came down me, and I tried to ignore it as I signed the papers. I done it quickly, and found an envelope nearby were I put the papers in, and wrote the address to my lawyers firm on the front.

My phone started ringing and I looked down to see Jasper's name on the caller ID.

"Hi Jasper," I said, thankful that the sadness I was currently feeling wasn't being displayed in my speech.

"We're all waiting for you Edward, how long you going to take?"

I looked down to the envelope that I was currently holding in my hand, "You go on ahead, I'll meet you up at the bar. I've got something to take care of."

"Alright, we're heading to that new one around the corner. See you later."

"Bye." I muttered before leaving my office, the envelope clenched tightly in my hand. I unlocked my car and headed to the nearest mailbox.

Before I knew it, I was standing infront of one of the mailboxes; one hand wrapped around the handle, the other holding the envelope so tightly I was unsure if I would ever let it go. My mind was still debating whether or not to go through with it, but I kept looking towards the reasons why this would be a good thing. _She won't be tied down to a man who has a better relationship with his job._

I sighed and posted the envelope, no time to go back now.

A drink is what I definitely need.

**~~*~~  
>? POV<br>~*~****  
><strong>

Felix was quite a tall man; he saw it has an advantage when he was able to look down on those who hired him. It gave him a higher range of superiority even though the man holding all the cards was infront of him, standing infront of a desk full of various papers ranging from timetables to maps.

Felix knew who this man was, and he also knew that it must be important if he asked for him. The news of the leaders arrest spread around the members quickly, and without some sort of command the large amount of members were likely to get out of control.

Ever since this new plan started to be formed, Laurent was almost automatically seen as the new leader. He ordered people around, and he was already in the higher circles of the Volturi gang so it was no surprise that he would have been one of the favourites.

Felix was motioned forward by Laurent and he stepped closer into the room. "Everything is sorted, but you're needed for part of the plan." He said straight to the point, "I'm sure you know which part." He raised an eyebrow and Felix nodded.

He didn't think that he was the best in his field of work in the gang. No, he thought Demetri was the best at that sort of thing, and then came James, but he was killed at the shootout by that stupid detective. Felix was seen more as a bodyguard for the gang, his huge build and guard features intimidated anybody. He had his fair share of kidnaps, but more than once he had returned to the safe house injured, and even on one occasion without the person, so he wasn't seen as main choice when a job arose.

"Me?" He asked dubiously.

"Yes. As you know James is dead and Demetri is unable to fly back to Chicago until next month so I trust you to not screw it up."

Laurent looked at Felix sternly in the eye and Felix straightened up as he asked. "What do you want me to do?"

"You are to visit the household for 5pm. We have a vehicle ready for you, and we will also do a simple diversion just to keep things off you for a while. It's to be a simple in and out. Time is important and we can't waste any on someone else catching you."

Felix nodded at this information as Laurent turned and grabbed a photo from the desk. He passed it to Felix who glanced down at the photo.

"That's your target." Laurent informed and Felix looked back up to him alarmed.

"But isn't this risky?" He said motioning to the photo in his hand.

"Yes it is risky, but in order for things to go our way we have to take risks." Felix didn't say anymore, but waited to see if Laurent had anymore to say, which he did.

"Now once you've completed it you are going to return here where I'll wait for you to make sure everything's fine. After that I need you to go here." He pointed to a map on the table and Felix leaned over to see the area he was pointing to.

"Seattle? You want me to go all the way to Washington?"

"Yes, we have another safe house up there that is prepared for our arrival. Don't forget I'll be with you, we just need to make sure we get there without any interruptions."

And with that Laurent left the room leaving Felix alone with a photo of his target and a bunch of instructions, which, if he failed, would be extremely costly to the gang, and would most likely result in his death.

Felix swallowed nervously and then walked out the room ready for the task ahead.

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><p><strong>AN: Soooo, can you guess what chapter's up next? :P<strong>

**It's my birthday next week as well so who knows, maybe another update will come early...**

**Thanks for reading, let me know your thoughts on the chapter, sneak previews will be given for reviews :)**

**Jaimie x**


	11. Chapter 10

**AN: Hey everyone, so it was my birthday yesterday and I was in a good mood so I've decided to update early, and I'm sure its a chapter you have all been waiting for...**

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><p><strong><span>Chapter 10<span>**

**~~*~~**  
><strong>Bella's POV<strong>  
><strong>~*~<strong>

I was currently deciding whether what I had just discovered will be the best thing in my life, or just make things worse. I looked down onto the tiny screen where a positive sign appeared. Although I had already taken a test and it had showed a negative, this second one changed things. I could possibly be pregnant.

My mind started to reel, and try to think when.

It had been a month since Edward and I had split up, and I wasn't that sleazy that I would sleep with the next guy I saw just to move on. The last time I could remember was the night Edward had surprised me with that lovely evening.

That had to be when it happened, but even though only one of the pregnancy tests had shown a positive, I had a feeling that this was the reading to believe. Should I be feeling elated? Extremely happy that I had discovered I was pregnant?

But I wasn't.

Why was I feeling sad about this discovery? Was I still upset over Mason's disappearance that I felt like I was replacing him? Is it because this child would not have the happy family every child should get?

I dropped the test into the bin and grabbed some toilet paper to cover up the two tests. I was lucky that Alice had some in her bathroom, even though I didn't realise they were trying for a kid. Unfortunately there was only two left, otherwise I would have taken a third one as a decider. Either way I didn't want Alice finding these things and then wanting to talk about what I was going to do about it.

Why couldn't it be simpler? Why did this have to happen now? Not that I was complaining about knowing I was carrying a child, it was the _father _of the child I was worrying about. He would have to find out sooner or later, but right now, in the middle of a divorce, this is just going to make things worse.

For all he knew, if I went over to him and say 'Hey, you're going to be a father.' He might just think I was thinking of some plan to stop him from divorcing me. But I couldn't prolong the time of not telling him, he had a right to know, and he had some custody rights as well. But the stupid divorce might affect this.

In all honesty I didn't want a divorce. I wanted to have Edward's baby, but I wanted to have it in the environment of a loving family. I had grown up living with divorced parents and it was a nightmare for me. I watched the different ways in which each parent lived. My mother got over it fairly quickly, soon finding her new husband and living the way she always wanted to.

But my father was a wreck. He had never stopped loving my mother, and made no attempts in finding a girlfriend and forget about his past. He was lonely, and when my brother and I lived with him for our final years of school, I watched as he changed because someone was there with him. That was all he needed, someone to love him and care for him.

But is this what it's going to be like with Edward and I? Is he going to be like my mother? His love that he no longer feels for me will be used to love someone else.

And what about me? Will I turn out like my father? Still hopelessly in love with the man I lost. Growing up lonely, having the usual visit from a possible child that was my only connection left with Edward. Is that how I was going to live the rest of my life? Is our child going to watch both parents live contrasting lives, and hoping all his life that he can be the child that brought mummy and daddy back together?

I needed to speak with Edward soon, and I was desperate for it to be now. I looked at the watch and saw that it was quarter past four. Jasper was usually home at around five o'clock the past couple of nights, so I assumed that Edward would do the same.

I made my way downstairs, hoping to avoid Alice and get questioned on where I was going. Unfortunately it didn't work and I was met by Alice's small figure at the bottom of the stairs. She looked at me, to the jacket in one hand and my car keys in the other and then back up to me with her arms crossed and an eyebrow raised. "You going out?"

"Yes," I answered honestly. Maybe she would just drop it and I could go. I tried to walk past her but she moved to the side blocking my way.

"Where?"

"Just out." I answered trying to go past her again but she stopped me. "Alice!"

"Bella, you have been inside for almost a month and now you're just 'going out'."

"That's not entirely true; I've been out with Jacob."

My little day out with Jacob wasn't too long after he had been discharged from hospital. He had wanted to do something, so he invited me to go the cinema and grab a bite to eat. For me it was harmless, but I wondered if Edward would have been bothered about me going out with another guy so soon.

"That was just getting back at Edward and you know it." I rolled my eyes and she continued, "I know you Bella, what's going on?"

"Alice, I just want to be outside, maybe take a drive. I'll even stop by the shops, do you need anything?" I asked in a hopeful attempt to change the subject. She kept looking at me wondering whether I was telling the truth when she said, "No, I know where you're going to go." She said whilst shaking her finger at me, "You're going to see Edward and I can't let you do that."

"What?" I asked, hoping to act surprised she even thought of that. Alice raised her eyebrow again as if challenging me but I just shook my head, "Alice I'm not going to see him," I lied, "I'm just going out."

Alice stared at me as she contemplated, but then she nodded believing me and let me walk past her, "Ok, but take your phone though."

"It's being recharged now."

"Ok, but we need bread…and milk." She shouted as I left the house. I looked from the keys in my hand and to my truck and decided against driving. The walk and the fresh air would help me think.

It took me about thirty minutes to get to the street where our- Edward's house is, and I was still as nervous as hell about what I was going to say to him. I made my way towards his house and noticed that his Volvo wasn't parked in the driveway. He must still be at the station.

My mind reminded me of the set of keys that were in my jacket pocket. I pulled them out and saw the house keys to the house still attached. Edward hadn't asked for them back, and I hadn't seen him since we were both in the hospital when Jacob got shot. I guess I would have to give them back, might as well now.

A cold wind blew and I pulled my coat tighter around me as I looked towards the door. Well I did have the key…surely he won't mind if I let myself in. It's not as if I'm breaking and entering, it did once belong to me.

I looked behind me to see if anyone was watching me, and when I was sure no one was I walked up the front steps and to the front door, unlocked it and stepped inside the house.

When I entered I expected some sort of change, like an obvious way to show I was no longer a part of Edward's life, yet everything was the same as when I lived here. Photos of Edward and I together over the past years were still in there usual places. Well they all had someone else in the picture, but still, I was in the picture. My belongings had been moved to a couple of boxes, but they were still inside the house.

I made my way upstairs to what had previously been 'our' room. I opened the door and looked inside. Everything was still the same. Another picture of Edward and I was still on its place on the nightstand on what had been my side of the bed. I walked over to the closet and opened it, expecting to see the clothes that I didn't have a chance to pack, or what Alice chose as 'unworthy', in various bags prepared to be given back to me, but when I pulled the doors I saw some of the clothes that I had left still hanging up.

I stepped back into the room quite shocked. It had been over a month, and after what he had said to me, and in a way what I also did to him making him believed I liked Jake, I would have expected him to get rid of all my stuff, get rid of any evidence that I was ever a part of him and his life. Yet my clothes were still in his closet, my things were still lying around the house, and photos of us together were still in their places. If someone came into his house you wouldn't think he was going through a divorce.

I heard the sound of a door closing downstairs. At first I froze but I just told myself that Edward was home. My heart started to beat faster at the reminder of why I was here. I gingerly placed my hand over my stomach and smiled.

"Edward?" I called out, moving out of the room and into the hallway, "Edward?" I called out again after he hadn't answered me. I waited a while for him to answer but it remained silent. Maybe I had heard a door closing in my mind and Edward wasn't home yet, but as soon as I thought of that, another noise downstairs contradicted my thoughts.

I made my way downstairs whilst calling out, "Edward, it's me, I hope you don't mind me letting myself in, I need to talk to you." I reached the bottom of the stairs by then and looked in the direction where I thought I had the noise.

"Edward stop ignoring me, I know you're here." I said, stepping into the front room where I thought he might be, glancing through to the dining room. Instead it was empty and I frowned. I was positive Edward was here.

I heard another noise, but this time it came from above me. "Edward?" I called out again, heading towards the stairs. I listened carefully until the sound appeared again, indeed from upstairs. I made my way back upstairs and walked through to the guest room which was at the front of the house. I entered and looked around, finding nothing but a made bed. I was sure the noise was in here this time.

I looked towards the window, were the weather outside had changed and it was now pouring down with rain. I walked around the bed and stood at the window, next to the small table with a lamp on it. I tried to see through the rain but I couldn't see much.

The sound of the floor creaking behind me caused me to look behind suddenly, but there was nothing there. I took a breath and looked back outside the window and squinted to see if I could see if there was a car in the driveway.

I managed to make out the shape of a car, but it was unrecognisable to me, and the breath caught in my throat as I noticed it wasn't the silver Volvo that was parked in the driveway, but a black van, parked so it was across the driveway and almost onto the grass. No one had rung the bell, or knocked on the windows or doors, so the only conclusion I could come up with I panicked. Someone else was in the house with me.

As soon as I realised that, a noise came from behind me, but I didn't move. I was frozen on the spot still looking at the black car. My mind was telling me to run, to get out of here, yet I couldn't. A reflection in the window caught my eye and they immediately moved from the car to the reflection of a moving figure in the window.

The noise behind me got louder, and I knew someone was coming up behind me. My eyes moved from the reflection on the window to the lamp besides me, and I quickly considered how much damage it could do if it was smacked over someone's head.

I looked back to the reflection and saw that it was halfway into the room. Whoever it was, they were trying to be sneaky and move slowly so they wouldn't be seen, but he only had a few more steps and he would reach me. I focused on keeping my breathing steady so he wouldn't realise I knew he was here. My hand, as slowly and as subtly as possible, moved from the window ledge, down to my side, and then out towards the lamp, as if I was switching it on.

I waited for a few seconds longer for the person to get closer to me, whilst my fingers wrapped around the body of the lamp. I took a deep breath in and pulled the lamp as hard as I could, and was quickly relieved when I felt the cord being pulled out of the socket.

I wasted no time turning around and swung the lamp. I registered the man's shock in his eyes as he watched me hit him over the head with it. He fell to the ground and I quickly ran past him as he made a quick grab for my legs, but I got passed him and made my way towards the stairs.

I heard some movement and I turned around expecting him to still be on the floor, but I gasped as I saw his body less than a foot away from mine. He was dressed completely in black, a balaclava covering his face and his hands were covered in gloves.

His arms reached out towards me, and I stepped back to avoid them but my foot caught on the top step and my balance wavered as I teetered on the edge of the step, my arms instinctively moved out to the side to stop myself from falling. But in the split-second I used to stop myself from falling down the stairs, my attacker used this to advantage and pushed me.

The hands I used to brace myself came off the banister and the wall; my body fell backwards down a few stairs before my head hit the wall. I didn't have time to fully register the pain as my body fell to the side, and I continued to fall down the rest of the stairs.

I crashed into a cabinet that was situated at the bottom of the stairs, causing things such as framed photos and other objects to fall off; some landing on me and some smashing when they hit the floor, shards of glass were spread around me.

My body was lying slightly awkwardly on the wooden floor, my back was pressed to the cabinet, broken glass and other broken objects were around me. I tried to move my arms and legs and was thankful that nothing was broken. But I stopped checking for injuries when I heard the steps creaking as my attacker made his way down the stairs and towards me, each step slow and agonising as if he knew I wouldn't go anywhere.

I was vaguely aware that the front door was only a few feet away from me, and that if I could get up I could escape. The sound of his footsteps descending down the stairs reminded me of how much time I really had, and I forced my brain to tell my body to move. I pushed up from my arms and lifted myself up slowly, closing my eyes and clenching my teeth as the pain from falling down the stairs was starting to show more, that plus the added hit to my head made me feel worse. I collapsed back onto the floor and breathed slowly to try and ease the pain.

I rolled over so I was on my side, and now facing the man as he was walking down the stairs. I started to push my legs on the ground and shift myself closer to the door, but as if reading my mind, he jumped down the final few steps, narrowly missing my right leg.

His arm raised, and then swung back hitting me across the face, causing me to fall back onto my back from the impact of the punch. I felt something wet trickle down the side of my face and I gathered he had broken the skin. My vision was faltered slightly as I slowly recovered from the punch, and all I could make out was a large black blur moving so he was standing directly over me, his legs either side of mine. I blinked a couple of times and I could see that he was pulling out something white from his trouser pocket.

From the shape of it, I believed that it was perhaps a cloth, and possibly drenched in some sort of drug and would be used on me. I tried to push myself away from him, but in a quick movement he brought the cloth down over my mouth and nose.

I brought my arms up from my sides and tried to pull his hand away from me, but he was too strong and his hand was still pressed over my face. I continued holding my breath, but I knew I wouldn't be able to last out for much longer. But an idea suddenly popped into my mind, something Edward had told me that a victim had tried, and failed to do when they were attacked, so I prayed that what I was going to do would work and he would believe it.

Continuing holding my breath, I purposefully slowed down the movements with my arms, reducing the amount of power in my force. I half-closed my eye-lids, as if the drug he was trying to use on me was making some affect. But the need for oxygen was starting to strain, and I was worried that I would take in a breath of the drug.

I continued slowing down my movements, until I dropped my arms limply by my side, and closed my eyes fully. The cloth was still covering my face and as my lungs started to burn, I hoped he removed the cloth quickly and believed I was unconscious.

Finally, the pressure from his hand decreased and the cloth was lifted away from my face. I fought the urge to breath immediately and waited until he was far enough so he wouldn't realised I had faked it. I carefully opened my eyes by the smallest amount, providing me with only a small amount of what was going on. He had turned around and was now facing away from me, so I opened my eyes fully and took in a breath, relieving the burn, and also keeping as quiet as possible to keep up the act.

He pulled out a phone from his pocket and dialled a number before pressing it to his ear.

"It's been done…..yes she's out cold…..I'm offended that you underestimated my ability…yes, I do have the tape, where do you want me to leave it?..." His conversation continued and I realised there must be more of them, and this was some sort of sick plan.

I had to get out of here, and fast. But my options were kind of slim. I knew his car was parked on our driveway, so lets just say I make it out of the front door, what's to say he just doesn't catch up to me and then it'll be easier to get me into his car. That's if he does actually want to kidnap me.

But I was injured, and he wasn't. If I ran he would most likely catch up to me and then I'd be in trouble.

If I made it outside I could possible scream for help, try and get some attention, but in this weather it would be lucky if anybody even heard me, and as well as that, I'd be going outside and it would probably be easier for my attacker then.

I looked back to him and he was still on the phone. I had to somehow distract him, or injure him in someway so I could get away, but the outcome of a fight between me and him would probably turn out to be him. I looked around for anything I could possibly use as a weapon. The glass around me was too small, or weren't pointy enough to use, I found nothing until my eyes rested on my legs.

They were situated between the attackers, which were either side of my body. All I had to do was lift my leg up quickly and powerfully…

"Yes I know… I'll bring her back befo- umph!" I brought my leg up and kicked between his legs. He dropped the phone onto the floor as he doubled over and held himself. I kicked him again, but this time on his back, so he went forward into the stairs and hit his head on the bottom step.

I lifted myself up, but when I put my weight onto my left leg, a sharp pain shot from my foot and up my leg, I nearly fell back down to the floor. I tried to hold onto something, but I ended up putting my weight against the nearest wall, my quick movement knocking down another frame and sending it crashing to the floor by my feet. I carefully put my weight back onto that leg, and winced as my ankle stung from the pressure.

I must have sprained it after I fell, and that just made things worse if I wanted to escape. I looked back to the front door and realised that by leaving this house it wouldn't help things. I could run, but he could run faster, and he had the van also, so even if I got a mile away, he could most likely catch me quickly, or worse – leave me and wait in the house for Edward to come back.

It was only by chance that I came to the house; Edward might be the real target and I couldn't exactly let him walk in and be captured. I had to call him, and even if it sounded stupid to stay in the house, I would be able to warn Edward. Perhaps by staying inside the house it would keep the attacker in one place, and if Edward brings the cops, the man will barely have a chance to escape.

I turned and limped towards the front room where I remembered our cordless phone was. I went immediately to a small table that we had next to one of the couches and went to grab the phone only to see an empty phone holder.

"Dammit!" I half-yelled, and started rummaging through the room looking for the phone. Taking the seats off the couches to check it hadn't fallen down the side, throwing anything that wasn't the phone out of my way to make it clearer for me to find.

After searching the front room, and with no phone found, I heard some groaning and cursing from the hallway, and something smash against the wall. I looked up to the door panicked. He was coming back for me, and my plan for calling Edward wasn't working entirely for me.

The door was open, and I could see his shadow creep closer and closer to the door of the room.

The phone wasn't here, and I didn't have time to search the entire house. Where was one place that Edward would most likely have his phone…?

"Come here you bitch!" He shouted angrily, and I made a dash to another door on the other side of the room which led to our dining room. I knew there was another door that led to the hallway, and get me to Edward's office. That was where he spent most of his time when he was with me, and with any cases he works on, I was sure he was still working constantly in there.

I had left the dining room just in time to see my attacker enter the front room further down the hall.

"So are we playing a game huh?" He shouted, as I made my way to Edward's office, "Because I'll find you."

I opened the door and entered, shutting it quickly behind me and turning the lock which I was thankful to Edward for having.

There were some footsteps outside in the hallway, and I held my breath so my location wouldn't be given away. My heart was beating so hard inside my chest I was surprised he couldn't hear the rapid _thump_ it made. His footsteps slowed down as they approached the office, and I took a step away from the door. My eyes were focused on the handle, which shook as he attempted to get in.

"You don't think a lock will stop me do you." He shouted again, and suddenly the whole door and the frame shook. He must have been kicking it down or throwing himself at it.

I turned back around and wasted no time in searching for the phone. Wiping sheets off of the desk, pulling out the contents of his drawers, (which I was frustrated to notice he didn't have a spare gun in there) even looking through his bookcase.

The banging continued, each knock slowly weakening the door, giving me a matter of time before he would break in.

I searched Edward's desk one final time before I saw something sticking out from under a pile of papers. I breathed a quick sigh of relief as I pulled the phone out from under the sheets, and then sat in a small gap under his desk as a partial hiding space for if he enters.

I brought it up to my face, as the usual light of the screen seemed to be less bright as usual. I squinted my eyes as I looked at the top right of the small screen, and prayed that my luck wasn't that bad tonight. In the corner, was a small battery-life bar, with the one final bar flashing…

"You have got to be kidding me." I whispered exasperated, and started to press in Edward's mobile number, a beep following after each number was pressed.

I had pressed about six digits when there was one final bang followed by the clatter of the door as it collapsed onto the ground. The wooden door creaked as the man walked over it to step into the office.

"I know you're in here." He teased, his footsteps now heavier as he stepped off the door and onto the wooden boards, "you can't hide from me."

His steps moved to the right, moving away slightly, as if he was going to do a full cycle of the room, meaning it wouldn't be that long till he made it to the desk, and I didn't have the best hiding spot. That meant less time to call Edward, and if I didn't do it quickly…well, I don't want to imagine what would happen if I was unable to get help.

I brought the phone closer to my body to cover the speaker, and pressed another button. A muffled beep came from the phone and I held my breath as I listened to any movements in the room.

Silence.

I closed my eyes and focused on my hearing, just to be positive. The floorboards creaked, and then carried on their slow pace around the edge of the room. I tried to cover up the speaker more and pressed the few remaining digits, the beeping sound too quiet to be heard unless you were close by.

My thumb was hovering over the call button when the desk I was under was suddenly pushed to the other side of the room, leaving me in the open space of the office. I looked up to see him looking back down on me, his fists clenched, the gap in his mask showing him smirking at me before he said, "Boo."

My thumb pressed down quickly on the call button as he raised his hand and punched me in the face again. The force in which he punched me sent me to the floor again, the phone released from my hand and slid across the floor just an arms-length away. The screen was facing me, alternating between _Calling… _and _low battery_. I stretched my arm to reach for it, but a large black shoe came down on my hand, causing me to cry out as he put all his weight on my arm.

"Such a smart one aren't you." he crouched and brought his head closer to mine, I turned away and looked hopefully to the phone, only to see it not connected, and running out of battery. I turned back and spat in his face, anything to get him away from me. "Feisty too…bitch." And with that he hit my face one last time, my head turning to the phone as my body slowly started to slip into unconsciousness, and only feeling truly defeated to see the screen flash _no battery_, and then darken altogether as the phone died. I closed my eyes as there was no longer any hope for a possible rescue from Edward, and I waited for the darkness to overcome me.

**~~*~~**  
><strong>Edward's POV<strong>  
><strong>~*~<strong>

Something must have been wrong because my phone had continued ringing for ages. Normally, if it was someone like Jasper, they just realise I'm busy or are being ignored and put the phone down, but this person had stayed on the line, and I couldn't even check the number as I had thrown it in the backseat of my car before in anger with Detective Taylor.

The roads were surprisingly empty, and it was sometime after six o'clock so there must have been some traffic on the roads, yet the only vehicle I had seen was a black van driving past me in the opposite direction.

I pulled into my driveway, and turned around and reached for my phone which was sitting in the furthest seat away. Stretching a bit more, I got hold of it, and then got out of the car.

I scrolled through the call history as I walked up to the door, but stopped as I read the number that was displayed on the screen. I knew it, that was for sure, but as I looked between my house and back down to the phone, I wondered how it was possible.

I didn't usually have my 'home' contact put into my phone, because if I'm the only one living here, who would call me? And that was what was puzzling me; someone had been in my house and called me.

I flipped my phone shut, and reached under my jacket to my holster, and pulled out my gun, holding it infront of me, whilst reaching out and trying the door. It was unlocked.

Far more wary, I slowly pressed down on the handle, and slowly walked into the hallway, my gun out infront of me. Upon seeing the hallway, I knew I must have been robbed. It was chaos, as though a bull had been let loose inside the house and created a path of destruction and a mess in its way. The photo frames had fallen off the wall, glass was shattered all by my feet, what was previously on top of the cabinet was now in pieces on the floor, and this was just the hallway.

I stepped further into the house, my arm still extended and turned quickly into the living room, the same mess mirrored here as in the hallway. Knowing it was clear, I continued my way down and checked the dining room, not as much of a mess in there, but it was clear nonetheless. I checked the kitchen and finally made my way to my office.

The door wasn't even attached to the frame, but on the floor instead. My eyes scanned the room, seeing the sheets of paper strewn across the floor, books had been swiped off their shelves, my desk had been upturned, my computer in a smashed pile not to far away from the desk.

I turned back into the hallway and listened for any noise upstairs. Once I was sure the perpetrator was no longer here, I lowered my gun and ran my hand through my hair in frustration. I pulled my phone out from my pocket and dialled 911 as I made my way into the living room, and paced in the only small available space I could.

"911 what's your emergency?"

"This is detective Edward Cullen, I want to report a robbery that occurred in my house, the area is clear, they must have run off."

"Can I have your badge number please Detective?" She asked, and I read it off from memory, and waited as she confirmed who I said I was.

"We'll send a car down to your location straight away." She said, but I didn't fully hear her as my eyes were focused on a small object that stood out from the rest of the chaos in the room. I answered a quick 'thank you' and made my way across the various objects on the floor towards a small black tape recorder, with a post-it note saying _play me_ on it.

Ignoring the fact it can be used for evidence, I picked up the recorder and pressed play. It was silent for a while until a voice echoed around the room.

"_Hello Detective Cullen, just from this tape you won't know who we are, but we certainly know you. We know everything including the smallest, insignificant details of your life. You've put a lot of important people away Detective Cullen, but frankly we're not bothered about them, we just want you need to get some of them out._

_We are aware of the fact you won't help us that easily, and also of the fact you most probably think we are just some crazy bunch of people pulling a mean trick on you…well it is mean when the ones you love are at risk._

_Spend this extra time wisely and carefully, as a limit on the amount of time you will receive will not be long. We will contact you again in preparation for what is to come, and what you will do. If you don't, and Mr Cullen I imagine that you already declining this absurd request at this moment, if you don't, then the ones you love will get hurt…"_

Silence continued for a few more seconds and I stopped the tape. I stood in the middle of the room completely frozen after what I had just heard. Whoever these people were knew about me, and must believe they can get what they wanted from a couple of threats. It had something to do with getting some people out of prison, that was obvious, but I didn't get why they kept repeating how 'the ones you love will get hurt'.

I saw a police car pull up into my drive, and was quite thankful to see Jasper as the officer getting out. He saw me looking out of the window and gave me a quick wave before entering the house. "Edward what the hell happened here?" He said, and his expression changed when he entered the front room and seen my own expression. "Edward what's happened?" He asked again, his eyes flickering down to the tape recorder that was still clenched in my hand.

I threw it to him and he caught it in his hands, "Listen to that." I told him, as I walked past him into the hallway to inspect the damage.

He clicked play and the message was played again. I started from the front door, and looked into the hallway. It wasn't a robbery; nothing seems to be missing from what I've seen. From what I can guess, whoever brought the tape decided to trash the place as well, maybe cover their tracks and make it look like a robbery.

The tape ended but Jasper forgot to press the stop button, and over the silence of the hallway you hear the crackling of the tape as it continued running. "So whoever these guys are, are threatening you with something?"

"I think so, but they could be bluffing, get me worked up so that I can give in quicker."

"But what if these guys mean it?" Jasper asked, and I stopped looking around and looked at Jasper.

"Then I'll protect everyone I know." I swore.

The hallway was silent again, except the crackling sound from the tape had changed, and it sounded like some sort of shuffling. I looked at the tape as I waited for something else to happen, something I may have missed when I just pressed stop.

Jasper opened his mouth to say something but I lifted my hand to stop him and keep quiet. I walked over to the tape and took it off Jasper, bringing it closer to my ear to listen carefully to the shuffling.

"_Is this damn thing working?" _A different voice came from the speaker, and I brought it away from my ear because it was so loud. Jasper and I looked up to each other and then back to the tape, "_yeah I guess it is, erm, I know I'm ruining my bosses plans in making this message seem really creepy and leave you hanging, but I just want to say I'm pissed off. I don't care what my boss says about me doing this, but just know that I was mad and let's just say I released my anger on the bitch I was sent for and she got what she bloody deserved. Alright, I'll let you think about that instead. Now how do I stop recording." _The tape stopped and I didn't take my eyes away from the tape in my hand.

Jasper's hand came down on my shoulder and I looked into his eyes, only to see his hurt, sympathetic expression. I shrugged it off and looked back at the mess at the foot of the stairs, but with things more defined I considered a different option.

I played various scenarios in my head: someone being thrown at the cabinet, someone hit over the head with something and falling to the floor, someone falling down the stairs. This was no robbery, and no planned trashing of the house, but a fight, a kidnapping to be exact.

_The ones you love will get hurt…_ was what the original message said. Had they planned to kidnap someone I knew all along.

My eyes focused on a small amount of blood gathered in a small circle on the floor, in the middle of a void in the glass. Knowing someone was hurt, I stood back up to Jasper, but now worried. I quickly thought of the people I was close to, the ones that if these guys were for real, would know that they would weaken me. I narrowed down my mental list into anyone who was female. The second guy had said 'she got what she deserved'.

The first person I thought of caused me to freeze, looking back down I saw the spots of blood and feared the worst.

"Jasper," I said, noticing that my throat had seemed to close up and my mouth was dry in the past few moments, "Can you call Alice please?"

"She's fine Edward; I was just talking to her before…"

"It's not her that I'm thinking of right now." I said through clenched teeth. Understanding dawned on Jasper's face as he looked at me.

"Are you sure Edw-?"

"Just call her dammit!" I shouted, and forcing myself to calm down, Jasper wasn't to blame. "Put it on loudspeaker." I said as I ran my hands through my hair, and Jasper pressed a button and held the phone out between us. The ringing continued until it was picked up and a cheery voice answered. I held onto Alice's optimism as a sign things were ok.

"_Hey Jazz, I was just about to call you, Bella hasn't come to you has she, she's been gone for a while. She told me she was going to the shops but I honestly think she was going to see Edward."_ I winced a bit hearing her name, the fact she was possibly going to see me, and the fact she wasn't home.

Jasper opened his mouth to answer, but closed it again and nodded for me to speak.

"Alice, its Edward."

"_Oh, what are you doing with Jasper? Didn't you guys finish work like an hour ago or something?"_ She asked the disgust with me quite evident in her voice.

"Alice, it's about Bella."

"_You have no right to ask about her after what you put her through."_ She said.

"Alice," I said calmly, trying to get her to calm down,

"_No, don't Alice me, she was nearly depressed when you decided to get that divorce-"_

"Alice listen to me, I think she's been kidnapped!" I shouted interrupting her mid-sentence. It was silent on the other line until a very quiet, _"What?"_ was all that responded.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:...Soooo, what do you think? Things are definitley kicking off now.<strong>

**I got my first flame last week :( wasn't too nice. I accept critism, I mean I'd welcome you to say improve this or to improve that to make it more enjoyable for you, what are reviews for hey. But anyways, if you've read to this point then I'm assuming you're enjoying it, maybe let me know your opinions, or even just a smiley if you liked it or not.**

**On the bright side I turned 18 on Wednesday :D**

**Thank you for reading/alerting this story, reviews will get a sneak peek as usual :)**

**Jaimie xx**


	12. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

**~~*~~  
>Edward's POV<br>~*~**

Alice's voice sounded so quiet and broken when she responded, that anyone else who had listened to her would have thought a family member of hers was taken. That was what it felt like between them anyway; they were such good friends that I even remembered them joking one time, calling each other their long lost sister.

"_What? Edward you better not be messing with me because that sort of thing isn't funny."_ She said sternly, but the worry was still evident in her voice.

"He's not lying love," Jasper quickly added, and I heard Alice take a sharp intake of breath on the other line, "It's a possibility she has."

"_I don't get it…what's happened exactly?"_

"We're not sure," I said, "I came home and my house was a mess, and a tape with a message to be played left in my front room, from what it sounded like, and the basis of what it looks like right now in my house, there's a possibility that someone was kidnapped, and unfortunately, since we haven't got a hold of Bella, it might be her."

"_But there's also a chance she hasn't been kidnapped? Right?"_ Alice asked hopefully, ignoring the most obvious choice, for which I was quite grateful for Alice being the optimist.

"Yeah there's a chance." Jasper said.

Alice agreed to tell us if Bella happened to return, and Jasper said he would be working late again.

When he put the phone down the house was filled with silence once more. Jasper looked like he wanted to comfort me somehow but kept deciding against it

I couldn't take my eyes away from the spots of blood on the floor and was kicking myself internally knowing that it was maybe Bella's. I moved myself away from the hallway and towards my office. Jasper just watched me not knowing what to do.

"Call dispatch or something Jasper, get forensics down here!" I called out to him as I entered my office and saw the chaos in the room from an entirely different perspective.

I looked down to the door which was now lying on the floor. The obvious reason for it being there was if the criminal (I would not say kidnapper as I tried to hold onto any last shreds of hope) had knocked down the door, in an attempt to get something or someone in here. Again my mind reeled back to the possibility of that someone being Bella.

_Stop thinking those things!_

But why did she lock herself in here? The blood at the floor in the hallway must have meant she, or whoever was here (still grasping onto that hope) was close to that door, so why didn't she make a run for it? Unless that came at a different time.

I took another look at the mess in the room, knowing that there had been some sort of struggle in here, or the man was really desperate to find something. Sheets were strewn all over the floor, books from my shelves were on the floor, not to mention my desk was upturned and my computer was destroyed. For all I know, it was just some robbery, and the criminal was looking for a case file or something. That makes more sense than if Bella was here.

I took another glance around until I found something peculiar, well I thought it was.

My house phone was on the floor, a good distance away from the desk, and I am sure that was where it was last. It could have simply fell off when the desk was turned over, but then I remembered my phone ringing in the car, and a large sense of dread started to ease up inside of me.

I walked over to the phone, stepping over various things that were in my way, and crouched down. The phone was dead, and I ignored the urge to pick it up and place back on the holder to recharge, and find out who the last call had been placed to, but knowing I could destroy any evidence I left it there, the feeling of unease still in my body.

I knew that whoever had been in my house had tried to call me, whether it was the criminal himself or the victim calling for help. I pushed down the feelings of guilt as I wondered if Bella, if she had been the one here, had tried to call me in her struggle, if I wouldn't have thrown my phone in the back of the car, what could have changed?

I was forced to wait outside as Forensics started to search through my house and collect evidence. Another guy from the station wrote down the information about what time I had returned home, all that necessary stuff they needed. He hadn't mentioned anything about a second person, or a victim for that matter, which I was partially grateful for.

Once I was finished with him, I waited outside just to see if they had found anything valuable. They had already taken the tape to be analysed to see if they could originate where that came from, but right now I just wanted to check one thing.

I had told them that someone had called me from my house but I couldn't answer the phone, so I was waiting for them to collect it for evidence.

Not too long after, a woman walked out with a couple of evidence bags, and I looked at them quickly and was happy to see the phone had been collected. I quickly walked up to her as I wanted to find out something, and I wanted it done now.

She hadn't realised I was walking to her until I got close to her. "Can I help you with something Detective?"

"That phone you've got," I motioned to the cordless one in one of the bags, "did you manage to get anything from it?"

"Yes we were able to collect a few fingerprints. We know most are likely to be yours but they are going to be sent anyway to see if another person's prints are on it."

"Is there anyway you could, you know, search it now?" I asked, "I mean I've seen some of the portable machinery you forensics carry around in the back of those SUVs, is it possible you can do it now."

"I'm not sure Detective, I guess it is a possibility of doing it now, but the time it takes for a perfect match can be days."

"I only need to compare it with one person." I said, in an attempt to make this quicker.

She looked uneasy, but then she nodded and motioned with her hand for me to follow her. "Are their prints already in the system?"

I nodded, feeling a pain in my chest remembering why the prints were put into the system those years ago.

We had made our way to one of the SUVs, and the woman opened the trunk of the van to reveal a bunch of technology that I assumed could be used for quick analysis such as this. She opened up a laptop, whilst also taking the fingerprints she collected and scanning them in by a small scanner which was also there. The screen loaded up, and the scan of the fingerprint was quickly on the screen.

"Name?" She asked.

"Isabella Swan." I said. Saying her name the way it was previously just felt so different from what I've known her as.

The woman typed in her name and it didn't take too long before a small message appeared saying the name couldn't be found.

"Try Isabella Cullen." I asked again, forgetting that was the name she used when giving in the prints, and she quickly typed in her name again.

The computer quickly found her, and all the details for Bella were correct, even though I knew they needed to be updated. Especially as her marital status will now be single.

She done what was necessary to prepare the results, and soon they were being compared.

I shifted restlessly on my feet as I watched a small bar start to move across the screen, internally hoping that it wasn't Bella who was in my house, as I knew that if it was, then ultimately that meant the message that was left is true, and that Bella was taken from my house.

Eventually the bar reached the end of the screen and I took a deep breath to prepare myself for whatever was going to appear on the screen infront of me.

A message appeared, and I was confused as I didn't know what it meant. It wasn't saying the fingerprints were a match, and it wasn't saying they didn't match either, it was something else. I turned to the girl next to me to see if she could explain.

"The print isn't completely clear. There must be oils, residue or something that is making the fingerprint unable to read for comparison. Because the print is so small, it's harder for the machine to get a clear image."

"So when would you be able to get it?"

"We would have to take it back to the lab, try and get a cleared print and then use that one for comparison."

I looked at the screen disappointed, as I still didn't know who the person was who used my phone.

"Alright, I want you to send me those results as soon as you get them please…"

"Tracy."

"…Tracy, and thanks anyway for trying."

I nodded to her and then turned away, hoping to find Jasper and see if he knew anything new.

I spotted him talking on the phone, and from the way he looked, it didn't look good.

I made my way over to him just as he put the phone down.

"Anything?"

"Alice says she still hasn't returned, and she left her phone in the house. Also, Alice was so worried that she went to the nearest shop and asked the shop assistant if he had seen Bella."

"And?"

Jasper shook his head. "But that was just one shop Edward." He tried to reassure me, "She'll show up, don't worry. Do you want to stay at ours for a while until they clean up your house?"

"No, not yet, I think I'm just going to go to the station and wait for the results. Anyways, if Bella comes back…"

"Edward…"

"No Jasper," I answered back sharply, "I am not accepting it, not until the evidence proves it. For now, someone broke into my house. Stole a case file from my office."

"Edward…"

"A break-in." I said finally. I didn't know what to think of myself each time I denied the obvious. It seemed like for everyone else they accepted what happened, but I guess because of how much she had been a part in my life; it was just too hard to accept it. I was holding onto any ounces of hope I could find.

I walked away from Jasper and towards my car.

"You don't need this for evidence do you?" I quickly asked one of the forensics and they shook their head, "Good." I said to myself, climbing into the car and driving away from my house.

With the speed I was going, it didn't take me long before I was back at the station and storming to my office. Jacob saw me and had got out of his chair to follow me.

"I heard about what happened? Is it true?" He asked.

I stopped walking and turned to him. His expression was probably just as worried as mine. Sometimes I forget how strong a friendship Bella has with Jacob.

"I'm not sure." I simply answered, turning away from him and entering my office.

I slammed the door shut and closed the blinds, before sitting behind my desk and waited for the telephone to ring.

**~~*~~  
>? POV<br>~*~**

Laurent waited impatiently for Felix as he stood outside the now abandoned warehouse in Chicago. On his orders everyone had been told to move up to another one of their bases close to Seattle, Washington. It was for the best if they could get as far from the police and Detective Cullen as possible, and nothing like the other side of the country was a good place as getting far away.

Laurent checked his watch for the tenth time in the past half an hour. It was an easy schedule to follow so he didn't know why it would take him so long. Unless he screwed it up and he was sitting handcuffed to a table in an interrogation room.

It was a simple plan; go into the house, drug the girl and get out of there.

The timing was crucial otherwise the plan would have failed and Felix could have walked into the house whilst they were having dinner. Or Felix could be carrying Cullen's unconscious wife out of the front door and he pulls into the driveway.

Any delay on his part would have had an effect on the whole plan. This was the only suitable idea that they had which didn't involve some jail blueprints and some explosives.

Laurent had a look around to see if he could see the black van, or, to also make sure he couldn't see any flashing lights and police cars. When he couldn't see it infront of him he sighed and pulled out his phone to call him instead and ask where he was.

Just as he went to dial the number, someone beeped from behind him. He put the phone away and turned around where he was briefly blinded by a pair of headlights. He heard the sound of an engine turn off, and he shielded his eyes as he walked towards the van which had appeared.

Laurent walked to the driver's side where Felix was leaning slightly out of his window. "Getting in?"

Instead Laurent motioned for him to get out of the van, so he did with a confused and slightly worried look on his face. As he stepped out Laurent took a look at him and shook his head.

Felix had a cut on his face and blood was drying on his cheek. Only he could manage to get hit in a fight against a woman who was almost two foot smaller than him.

"What the hell happened?" Laurent asked, nodding to Felix's cut face and his watch.

"There was a bit of trouble at the house."

"I can see that." Laurent said to himself, "Pass me the cloth." Felix's brow furrowed confused at what Laurent wanted. "The drugged up cloth, give it to me." Laurent rolled his eyes as he realised what he was talking about and reached into his pocket for the cloth.

"I didn't even need to use it." Felix said proudly as Laurent looked for the bottle of chloroform that they had put in the front of the van earlier that day.

"So you knocked her out by hitting her?" Laurent said as he found the bottle and poured a bit more on the cloth.

"She kept fighting back." He defended pointing to his cut cheek. He noticed Laurent finishing with the cloth and was suddenly worried incase it was going to be used on him.

"What do you need that for?"

Laurent ignored him and started to walk towards the back of the van, "I'm guessing she's in here." He said whilst looking at Felix.

"I got the right girl." Felix said following him to the back doors, feeling a need to defend his ability to work. "Why do you need the cloth again?"

"Because…" He answered and opened the back door. Felix stepped forward to advise him not to do that since he didn't tie up the girl.

Before he realised what was happening, something tackled into him from the van and he fell to the floor, trying to fight off the person who had just knocked him over. He looked up to see the brunette he was sent for, trying to untangle herself from Felix's restraining arms, and preparing to run away. She didn't realise there was another person watching them in amusement.

Felix lifted his arm to punch her but suddenly her weight was taken off him. He sat up to see Laurent standing behind her, his arm wrapped around her neck as he pressed the cloth over her mouth and nose, and his other arm pinning her arms against herself so she couldn't fight as easily.

She struggled for a few seconds until she slumped against Laurent; her eyes closed and her body limp.

"That's why." He answered again as he dropped the girl to the floor.

"Make sure she's really out, she faked it when I tried."

Laurent looked to him in astonishment, but bent down and slapped her across the face to check. When she didn't move he stood back up.

"She's out, and this time tie her up." He told him as he dropped the cloth to the floor next to her. Felix got up hurriedly and looked in the back of the van for something to tie her up with. He saw some duct tape so he grabbed it and tore off a large piece to tie up the girl's hands and legs.

"We don't have all day Felix." Laurent called out from inside the van, "We need to be in Seattle by tomorrow for the next stage of the plan." The van's engine was turned on as Felix finished up with the duck tape, and picked up the girl and threw her back into the van.

He jogged around the other side and climbed in the passenger side, and Laurent drove away from the warehouse and made his way onto the highway, as he started their journey to Washington, happy that their plan was working out so far.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: So here's the next chapter, hope you liked it. Thanks for readingalerting/reviewing, it means a lot. As usual a sneak peek will be given to those who review :D**

**With my half term being next week, I would say I would be getting a lot of writing done, but this half term is really important for me in terms of my revision so don't be mad if I forget to update :)**

**On a random note, one my my close friends found out this weekend that she got accepted into an American Uni :) We're all made up for her, but I think the whole distance thing hit everyone today and we all got a little sad :( but I was soon cheered up by seeing the new BD part 2 trailer. Have you seen it yet? Thought it was too short for my liking :P**

**Thanks again everyone :)  
>Jaimie xx<br>**


	13. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

**~~*~~  
>Bella POV<br>~*~**

When I had woken up in that van I wasn't sure what to think. I had thought that the man who was in Edward's house would have wanted to kill me. It confused me that they had wanted me alive, but once I realised that I just became more afraid of what he, or whoever he was working for, wanted me for.

I panicked.

I knew I needed to get out of there. Unfortunately I was in a moving van, with no idea of where I was going. The driver didn't know I was awake so I just kept quiet.

When the van slowed to a stop I knew that this was my only chance to get out. My heart was racing and my eyes were focused on the door.

As soon as I heard the doors unlock and they were opened, with the man who attacked me not even looking at me, I ran.

Unfortunately my idea was short lived. For one, I couldn't get out of the man's grasp on me, and secondly, I didn't even realise there was a second guy, and before I knew it I was knocked out again.

So when I woke up I was confused of my surroundings yet again.

I was only just recovering from the drug so my eyes wouldn't fully open, and my arms and legs were still limp. I felt slightly dizzy, and it was then that I realised I was upside down. Well kind of.

I was moving, but I knew I wasn't using my legs. My body was bobbing up and down with each movement. I felt something tight and uncomfortable wrapped around my hands and legs, and something else covering my mouth. I was tied up and couldn't even shout for help.

Eventually I managed to open my eyes completely, but I could only take in a few of my surroundings as I was facing somebody's back end, and everything was turned upside down, with my hair hanging down infront of me.

I tried to turn my head to see where I was. All I could see was a few doors in what I assumed to be a long hall. Somewhere in here I was going to be handed off to someone.

Immediately I started to shift around on the man's shoulder, lifting my joined arms together to hit him in the back, and trying to move my legs so I could maybe hit him in the face.

"Dammit she's coming around." I heard the man who was carrying me say.

"Well hurry up so she doesn't give you another injury." Replied another voice amused, which was slightly infront of me. Or behind. I was too disorientated to know. "Put her in here." I heard him say, along with the sound of a lock unlocking and a huge metal door opening.

As the man moved into the other room, I was suddenly taken into darkness. Unlike the hallway, this room barely had any lighting.

Before I had a chance to look around I was suddenly thrown off the man's shoulder, and put down roughly onto a hard stone floor.

I groaned as I hit the ground, feeling the pain from all the previous injuries resurface.

The man who carried me stepped infront of me, crouching down and pulling something metal from his jacket. The small light in the room reflected off a metal blade, and I was quickly frightened. I tried to shuffle away from him but he quickly grabbed me, stopping me from moving.

He brought the knife down as I closed my eyes so I didn't see what he was about to do. I heard a ripping sound but no pain.

I slowly opened my eyes to see the man holding pieces of cut tape in his hands. I looked down and noticed that my arms and legs were free from the taped restraints. He bent down again and ripped the tape that was covering my mouth. It stung for a while, but the pain started to dull. He moved away from me and made his way to the door.

I was too weak to pick myself off of the floor. The chloroform was still having an affect on me and I felt drowsy, but I was too scared to fall asleep.

The two men were still standing at the door watching me but they didn't come near me and for that I was thankful.

I shuffled myself away from them until my back hit the wall. It was cold and damp and caused me to flinch with the contrast to the temperature of my skin.

Someone else appeared at the doorway behind the two already here, he looked between their two faces and then looked down onto me, moving his eyes up and down my body as if he was evaluating me.

"That her?" He asked, stepping into a small sliver of light as he leant to whisper to one of the men, even though I could here what he said.

The other man nodded. He whistled appreciatively and I cowered back instinctively.

"Royce, you're married!"

"I know, I know." Royce replied still looking at me, "But still…" He trailed off and I tried to make myself as small as possible so he wouldn't be able to see much of me. He noticed this time and laughed.

"I don't know how you can do that sort of thing when you're married to such a goddess."

He simply shrugged and turned his eyes back to me. I couldn't stand being scrutinized under their gazes, it was making me even more uncomfortable and scared.

"Can you do me a favour and bring her up for me, Royce?" The darker one asked who was the closest to me, and he turned and started to make his way out of the room. "Felix here went and beat her up pretty badly, and she's the only good doctor we have here."

"Hey, you know it wasn't totally my fault." The other man, Felix, said, following the darker man out of the room, but he stopped him.

"You're going to stand out here and keep watch." He ordered and Felix looked like he was about to argue. "It's completely your own fault." He said cutting him off, "No one goes in and she doesn't come out, is that clear?" He asked, and Felix simply nodded his head.

"Now Royce," the man said turning to him, "can you do that for me?"

"Will do." He answered, giving me one last look and then walking away.

The man walked away, and Felix shut the door behind him leaving the room in complete darkness and silence. Now completely alone, in this cold, damp room, with no idea where I actually was. I have no idea why I've been brought here. There's the slightest chance it has something to do with Edward, but still I wasn't completely sure with that.

I had no idea if people at home knew I was taken. Then again it must be kind of obvious when Edward's home was a bit of a mess, and I never returned home to Alice.

Would I ever return home? I had no clue to what these men where going to do with me, and frankly it scared the hell out of me.

It wasn't until I felt the wetness on my cheeks that I realised I was crying, and then as soon as I noticed that, my emotions took over and my body shook uncontrollably from sobs. I brought my legs up to my chest, wincing as a sharp pain shot through it.

I don't know how long I sat there in the darkness, crying, and wanting to go home. But what surprised me the most was that one of the things I wanted was to be held in the protective, caring arms of Edward, where I knew it was safe.

I wanted to go back to the way things used to be, before our relationship fell apart, before Mason was taken from us.

And it broke me even more knowing I could never go back to those days. I didn't know if I could make it out of this place alive.

The sound of the lock turning in the door startled me and I turned my face quickly to the door as it opened, and I feared in case it was the start of things to come.

The light in the corridor created a silhouette of the person at the doorway, but I didn't think it was one of the earlier men. Firstly, it was the shadow of a woman, and in her hand she carried some sort of case.

The lights in the room were quickly turned on, and I shielded my eyes from the sudden change in light. When my eyes refocused I saw who was standing at the door.

A young woman, perhaps the same age as me, with blond hair tied up into a ponytail, and a beauty that didn't really belong to someone who was working here, stepped a few paces into the room.

Royce appeared behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist, and very slightly, she flinched under his touch.

"What does Laurent want me to do?" She asked, keeping her eyes on me.

"I don't know. Doctor stuff." He replied simply, and I could see her roll her eyes. "Laurent just said make sure she looks pretty cleaned up."

"Anything else?"

"Yeah, one other thing…" He bent closer to her and whispered in her ear, and I couldn't make out what he was saying, but her eyes flickered to me, "…so do that as well, and do something about those bruises, they create a bad impression."

"Because we all give great impressions to the world don't we?" She said sarcastically.

"You know what I mean." He answered angrily, "Now hurry up we don't have much time. I have to lock the door behind you…" His eyes looked down to me then, "…apparently she's a fighter." He said with a wink, he kissed the woman on the cheek, not noticing her flinch, and then finally left the room, locking the door.

The woman looked down to me then, and her whole demeanour; her stance and her cold blue eyes, just enhanced what seemed to be a completely cold and tough exterior. Even though I believed she was a Doctor, I had the feeling she was one person I didn't want to mess with.

She strode over to the bed that was here in the room, well, I say a bed, but rather it was a mattress, held up from the ground by about 1 foot by what looked like an unstable metal frame. She placed her bag on top and unzipped it, the sound of the zip echoing in the room just emphasised how quiet it really was in here.

She unpacked some things and placed them on the bed. From my curled up place on the floor I could see a few bandages, antiseptic wipes…mostly first aid stuff. She put on some gloves, the latex snapping against her hand as she put them on.

She eventually turned to me and spoke. "Is there anywhere specifically where you feel pain?"

I never answered her out loud, the fear and the whole concept of this overwhelming situation was too much. Instead I looked at a piece of dirt on the floor near her feet.

"Look," she spoke again, moving forward so she was standing infront of me, "I have a deadline, and even though it's something as simple as fixing you up, if you won't comply then those men will just return and hurt you until you do." She warned.

I immediately thought of Royce, and I was suddenly terrified if I was left alone in a room with him.

The woman must have noticed my reaction to her words as she was suddenly a lot calmer when she spoke.

"I'm only going to see if you're alright. I'm not going to harm you." She promised, and I looked up from the floor.

Surprisingly, I seemed to find sincerity in her eyes to follow her words. But to think about it more, she was a Doctor, so I guess it's only right that I should trust what she says.

I nodded my head to show I agreed, and slowly uncurled myself from my personal, protective ball. I winced again as the pain in my leg returned and the Doctor took notice.

"Here, let me help you with that." She crouched down and held my leg gently, slowly moving it into a straight position. Once straight she started to press gently on different areas on my leg to see where it hurt the most.

"I think it's just a sprain, or it could be badly bruised. I'll bandage it up and I'll check again just incase it's not a sprain."

I nodded again, still unable to speak. She grabbed the bandage and started to wrap it around my ankle.

"I'm Rosalie by the way." She said, looking up to me.

"Bella." I responded.

"I know." She said, giving me a slight smile, "I'm just going to sterilise those cuts on your face, do you have any others?"

I didn't feel pain anywhere else except my leg, so I just shook my head.

She started to dab the cuts on my face with some antiseptic, and thankfully she said they weren't bad enough to get stitches.

A loud knocking on the door interrupted what she was doing, and she turned her head in the direction of the door.

"What?" She called out, slightly annoyed.

"Have you finished yet?" A voice called out from outside, Felix maybe.

"No."

"Well can you hurry up, Laurent isn't a patient man."

"Well if you hadn't beat her up so much then I wouldn't be seeing to her in the first place now would I?"

"Hey, I told you all before," he answered back angrily, "she hit me, so I hit her back. The point is I got the job done."

"Well you did it wrong. I wouldn't be surprised if you messed something else up."

"No I didn't," he called back too quickly, and what seemed to be defensively as well, "I didn't do anything else wrong, I done everything the way Laurent told me, everything."

"Okayyy." She said quietly to herself, and returned to dressing my wounds.

Once finished, she stood up and went back to her case on the bed. I thought she was preparing something else but I couldn't see well so I just thought she packed all her stuff back into her case. She placed it on the floor before turning back to me.

I was thinking whether I should tell her about why I had visited Edward's in the first place. If these people were going to hurt me then I was going to have to do something. Even if I wasn't pregnant it might just help me get out of some beating. Plus, the only person who would be likely to believe me would be this Doctor. Who knows what those sick men outside would do.

"There's something else." I said quickly, and quietly, not even sure if she had even heard me.

When she crouched down next to me, and looked at me intently I knew there was no backing out of what I needed to say.

"Where does it hurt?" She asked and I shook my head.

I took a breath in to calm myself and told her. "I think…I think that I'm pregnant." I whispered.

Something flashed behind her eyes that I couldn't understand, and her expression was suddenly unreadable.

"Are you sure?"

"I think I am." I said again, "I'm not completely sure."

"You've taken a test right?"

"I took two, but got different results."

She sighed and muttered something under her breath before looking back to me.

"I'll bring some the next time I come here." She said, "Let me help you onto the bed, you're not helping yourself by sitting on this floor."

She bent down and lifted me up, balancing some of my weight onto her so I didn't put any on my leg. I limped towards the bed, and she placed me down gently on the mattress.

As I was put down on the bed, she leant over to her case and then I suddenly felt a small prick against my arm.

The Doctor's face was quite apologetic, and I turned my head to where I had felt the prick.

A small needle was still in my skin, and I watched as she injected me with something.

I didn't know what it was, and before I could even fight and stop her from putting anymore of it in me, my muscles felt weak and my eyelids were becoming heavy.

She slowly laid me on the bed as my eyes started to close, and then she turned away, picking up her case and moving to the door.

The last things I heard was the door opening and the woman saying "She's ready."

**~~*~~  
>Edward's POV<br>~*~**

I waited for about two hours till I received that call from forensics. The call that would either confirm or destroy my theories, and from what I heard from the forensics, I was starting to believe that Bella wasn't actually in my house.

The fingerprint they found on the phone couldn't be matched to anyone. It just wasn't a valid print, and the only other ones they found belonged to me. However, according to the call history, someone did call me from my house, so that just confused me.

Apparently Jasper and I had contaminated any of the evidence that was on the tape recorder, and even when they managed to identify and separate our own prints, there weren't any other ones to search. The guy must have been wearing gloves. They were still running some voice recognition tests however, but the results for them would be longer.

Also, they believed that some files were taken from my office, and this helped support the idea that this was a robbery.

This, plus a call from Alice helped calm my theories that Bella was taken.

From what Jasper had told me, Alice had visited every store that sold bread and milk within a mile radius of their house. We didn't think that Bella would walk at least a mile to a store when there was just one around the corner, but Alice was determined.

She had asked every shopkeeper or assistant if they had seen a twenty-seven year old woman with brown hair, brown eyes, about 5'5, who bought bread and milk.

She got to one store though, a small newsagents, about a 30 minute walk from their house, and the assistant admitted that he vaguely remembered a woman who sort of matched Alice's description, who came in and bought bread, milk and a bunch of other things.

That seemed to satisfy Alice, and she called us quickly saying that someone had apparently seen her. It wasn't a lot, but I was putting my hopes on this guy.

Forensics still had to call me back to update me on other things, so for now I had to wait patiently for some other news.

My phone rang and I quickly picked it up.

"_Anything?"_ Alice's voice said, and as much as I don't mind Alice calling me, I was a bit disappointed that it wasn't someone else.

"No, they haven't called me back yet. I'm guessing she hasn't returned home yet."

"_No." _She said sadly and I sighed, _"Edward it's been over four hours…"_

"She'll come back, she always does."

"_And if not?" _I remained silent, _"Why, what's your theory?"_

I sighed, "I think that someone broke into my house looking for something. My office door was locked so they knocked it down and went in search for some case files, information on different cases I've been working on. I believe that someone either wants something from it, or is just making sure that I have none of the vital information. There's not a lot to support the idea that Bella was there."

That was the story I kept telling myself in my head. That's what happened, and nothing else.

"_Wow, that's pretty good. Mind if I follow your idea?"_

"Go right ahead." There was a beeping in the background and a red light flashing on the console, "Listen Alice I've got another call, I'll ring you if we get anything else."

She said goodbye and I quickly answered the other call.

"_Is this Detective Cullen?"_

"Yes," I answered, shifting in my seat.

"_It's Tracy; we spoke earlier today at the crime scene."_

"Oh yes, do you have something for me?"

"_Yes and no." _She answered, _"Firstly, the voice recognition results didn't come through, we couldn't match it to anyone."_

"Okay, what else?"

I heard her sigh on the other end of the line, _"We collected some blood at your house." _she started, and my mind thought to the small droplets of blood by the door. _"The blood found came from two separate donors, and we managed to identify one of them."_

Listening to what she was saying, this could support or ruin my idea. Two people were in my house. _Please let them both be the robbers…_

"_I ran one of the samples with the name you gave to me earlier, Isabella Cullen…" _The breath I was taking was suddenly caught in my throat, _"…her DNA was already in the database, and we managed to make a match. She was in your house earlier today."_

The breath I was holding suddenly came out all together, and I collapsed more into my seat as she confirmed my fears.

"_Now there isn't enough blood that would come from a threatening injury, so it's safe to say that she isn't in any harm."_

"Well no offense, but she's likely to be kidnapped; I think she is in plenty of harm!" I yelled. I took a breath to calm myself down and spoke again, "I'm sorry, isn't there anyway that both drops of blood could have come from separate times. She is known to be clumsy, is there any chance she was in my house earlier and stumbled and cut herself, and you know, the robbery came after?"

There was a pause on the line, _"I guess so…but with the state of your house, we assumed that there had been a struggle."_

I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose in frustration. "Alright just…call me again if you find any more evidence."

"_Will do Detective, and, I'm sorry, I guess this woman means a lot to you." _ She said before hanging up.

I breathed in heavily and buried my face in my hands as I heard the door to my office open.

"Edward, are you alright?" Jasper asked, moving closer to me.

"Bella was in the house."

"What? Are they su-"

"It was her blood on the floor." I said, leaning back in my chair.

Jasper was silent for a moment, and then he said quietly, "I'm sorry."

"Don't be." I said, standing up from my chair, "There's still a chance it was at separate times."

"Edward…" Jasper started, and I could tell from the tone of his voice that I was grasping at thin air.

"I know, but I don't care. It doesn't hurt as much when I think of it that way." I said, moving past him and out the door.

"Since when have you cared so much?" Jasper asked, and I halted mid-step and turned to look at him. "I mean when you were getting that divorce, I was pretty sure you wanted her out of your life as soon as possible."

"That's not true."

"You asked her to sign the papers almost an hour after you said you wanted a divorce. That's pretty quick don't you think?"

"Maybe I wanted the divorce quickly, but that doesn't mean that I want her out of my life at the first available chance. She was a huge part in my life; I think it's understandable that I should care a bit for her."

Jasper didn't say anything, so I turned around and walked away from him.

"Edward, wait." I stopped, and he walked around so he was infront of me. "I'm sorry man; I didn't mean it like that. I shouldn't be so surprised that you care for Bella."

I nodded to him. "It's okay." I patted him on the arm and then stepped around him.

"Wait Edward there was something else. Apparently Jessica wants to know if she can have that coffee that you promised to have with her."

"What coffee?" I asked confused.

"Apparently you said you'll have coffee with her the other day."

I thought over the past few days. I couldn't even remember if I had agreed to have coffee with her.

"Couldn't you tell her that I was a bit busy?"

"I did, but she doesn't believe me."

I ran my hand through my hair, "Where is she?"

He pointed over his shoulder, where Jessica was standing with her bag and coat in hand. I groaned and started to walk towards her.

She spotted me and waved and I groaned again.

"You ready?" She asked excitingly.

"Jessica, now isn't a good time, I'm in the middle of something."

"What?"

I ran my hand through my hair. "Look, I hope this doesn't sound bad but, when did I ask you about this coffee?"

She giggled and placed her hand on my arm. "Last week, don't you remember?"

I shrugged her hand off, "No, not really, now I have to go."

"Well can't we do this another time?" She asked, and she genuinely looked sad that I wasn't going with her now. I thought about it and then answered.

"No." I turned around, "I'll see you later Jessica." I called out, walking away from her.

I shook my head and made my way back to my office, passing Jasper on the way. "So aren't you going out with Jessica then?"

"Nope."

"Wow, I thought with you being single you would have maybe jumped at the chance."

"Jasper, Bella is missing, is now really the best time to talk to me about going out?"

"Sorry about that. Anyways I just come over to say bye, I'm calling it a night."

I looked at my watch and saw the time was close to 10 o'clock.

"We'll probably have more information in the morning anyways. You not going?"

I looked down to my watch, and to my office, where I could see my telephone on my desk. "No, I'll hang on here for a while. I'm still waiting for a call."

"Alright then, I'll call you if Bella comes home." He said, and then walked away.

I yawned, the events of today taking a toll on me. I wanted to just fall asleep, but I knew that there were things I had to still work on.

I went back to my office and sat on my chair, logging onto my computer to see if there was anything I could find on that.

I never looked at the clock once whilst I was working, and before I realised it, my fingers had stopped typing, and I closed my eyes and fell asleep.

*

When I woke up, my head was leaning against my desk, and a red light was flashing on the console of my telephone.

I sat up suddenly and picked up the phone, pressing the button to see who had called me earlier that night. Once I recognised Jasper's number, a surge of hope ran through me and I was soon dialling his number.

I held the phone to my ear as it started to ring, but then my office door opened and Jasper walked in with two coffees in his hands. I put down the receiver and gladly accepted the coffee Jasper was offering me.

"I thought you would stay all night." He joked, sitting down in the chair on the opposite side of my desk. However, I could still hear an underlying tone in his voice, he was unhappy about something.

Suddenly it clicked and I closed my eyes as I felt the pain of what he never told me.

"She didn't come home did she?"

I opened my eyes, and watched as Jasper shook his head.

I turned to my computer and started typing in some things, Jasper watching me curiously as I continued to work. Once I found what I wanted, I quickly printed it off, and stood up from my desk to collect it from the printer. It took a while to print out, but as soon as the paper fell on the tray, I snatched it and made my way out of the office, making my way to Jacob's desk.

Jasper quickly followed behind me, but he didn't ask what I was doing, just watching me.

Jacob saw me approaching, and must have read the expression on my face as his face fell.

I brought the sheet down onto his desk and slid it towards him. "I want you to get this to as many officers as you can. Tell them, that finding her right now, is there number one priority." I ordered, pointing to the picture of Bella I printed off.

"So it is true?" He asked quietly.

"She never came home last night." I answered in the same tone as him.

His expression changed, and suddenly he was angry. He stood up from his desk, towering over me with his height and build.

"You should have never hurt her." He growled, "She didn't deserve you." With that he gave me a cold glare and then walked off before I could say anything to him.

"No she didn't." I whispered to myself as I moved away from his desk, past Jasper and towards the showers they had here at the station, because I knew I didn't have time to go home.

It was early afternoon, and I still had no word from forensics, the officers on patrol, or Alice. A part of me knew that searching for Bella probably wasn't the best way to figure this out, so I started looking for the other person who broke into my house. Even if he didn't take Bella, I can get him for breaking and entering.

I was looking through my online files, trying to figure out what case files the burglar took from my office, when the phone rang. I spun around in my chair and picked it up quickly.

"_Edward, you need to come see this, quickly." _I heard Jacob's voice say.

"What is it?" I asked, already standing from my chair.

"_Just get to my desk." _He said before putting the phone down.

I left my office quickly, and walked through the desks that were situated in the main room until I got to Jacob's. He looked a little worried, and there was a few other people standing around him.

"What's happening?" I asked, and a few of the officers standing around looked at me and then scampered away, thinking they were in trouble.

"I'm not sure," Jacob said, and he motioned for me to move to his side of the desk. Clearly his mood from before changed and he's not that angry with me. "I was just typing when this popped up." He shifted the computer screen so I could see it clearly.

A new window had appeared from the screen, from what it looked like an email that he opened and this appeared instead.

I quickly looked at the email in which it must have appeared from, and then turned to Jacob. "Save the Olympic Wolf?" I asked amused, "You really opened that?" I smirked.

He scowled, and took the mouse off me and re-opened the pop-up. "It's addressed to you." He said, ignoring my question.

I looked back to the screen, where there was a large yellow square, with a green square in the middle with the word 'play' in black letters. Above it, were the words 'To Detective Edward Cullen.'

I moved the cursor to the button where it changed into a little pointed hand. It was obviously a link of some sorts.

"You really going to play it?" Jacob asked unsurely, "What if it's a virus or something?"

"It's not a virus."

"How'd you know?"

I pointed to the bottom right hand corner, where it said in smaller letters, _'from Irut Lov'_.

"What? Is the sender Russian or something?"

I sighed. "What does it say backwards?"

His lips moved as he tried to read it backwards, and he suddenly gasped. "The _Volturi_, they're the ones who sent you this."

When Jacob said this, it seemed to gain the attention of the people around us, and they peered over their desks to see what was on Jacob's screen.

"They may be a big gang, but they're not so good at making anagrams." I said, still looking over the email and the new link. "Actually, they sent _you _this, so I'm going to have to talk to you later." I heard Jacob mutter some sort of protest but I ignored him. "Why have they sent me this?" I asked myself, "What's the reason?"

"Open it and find out." Jacob responded.

"Jasper?" I called out, and he stepped up from talking to someone, "Come here, I need you to take a look at this."

He made his way quickly to Jacob's desk and then looked at the screen.

"It's from the Volturi," I told him, "but I don't know if it's some sort of trick."

He looked at the screen and then quickly to Jacob, "Wolves? Really Black? Didn't know you cared so much."

"Can we focus on the matter at hand please?" He said annoyed.

Jasper concentrated on the image but then shook his head. "No, they want you to see this directly." He said answering my question, "The Volturi have good enough hackers anyway to probably get into our system, it wouldn't be a trick."

"Right then, guess I'll press play." I said, and I clicked on the link which said play.

The first image disappeared, and then another one appeared, but it only had text on.

_HELLO DETECTIVE CULLEN…HOW ARE YOU?_

Jacob laughed besides me, and I turned to him. "They're messing with you." He said, but I turned back to the screen.

The text changed again.

_ANSWER THE PHONE..._

I looked at the screen confused and then looked down to the phone on Jacob's desk. It didn't ring.

"Get everybody to quiet down." I told Jasper as I tried to listen to any phone that was ringing.

The room suddenly went silent, and still no phone rang.

A sharp shrill rang through the room, and I turned quickly to where the phone was ringing from.

Vincent leaned forward to pick up the phone from his desk, but I quickly yelled at him not to. His hand froze mid air as he looked at me, and the phone continued to ring.

"Bring it over here." I said, and he picked it up and brought it as far as it would go with the wire still attached. "Can someone get a recording of this somehow?" I said, as I stretched for the phone.

One of the tech guys sorted something out quickly and nodded his head to me. I looked Jasper in the eye, and he had the same worried expression on his face that I'm sure I had. I picked up the phone and lifted it to my ear, the extra wire for the receiver meant I didn't have to stretch out all the time.

I breathed in deeply and then spoke.

"This is Detective Cullen." I said, trying to keep my voice strong, and let them know that I wasn't afraid of them.

"_Hello detective, I see you got our email."_

"Which told me to answer the phone, that was very inventive of you."

There was a dark chuckle on the other end of the line, _"Oh Detective Cullen there's more that email has to show. What did you think of our timing? I think it's pretty clever."_

"Well I reckon it's stupid, and a little cliché coming from such a high class gang such as yourselves."

"_Oh well, it adds a certain mysterious tone, don't you think."_

"Who is this and what do you want?" I asked, getting straight to the point.

"_I obviously can't tell you my name Detective, I'm no fool. I'm representing the Volturi and we have an offer for you."_

"An offer? The Volturi? Really?"

"_Well when you say it like that Detective Cullen I guess it's more of a…what's the word, ah yes, it's more of a negotiation."_

"And what will I be negotiating with?"

"_First, let me tell you our offer."_

"Go ahead, what is it the Volturi want?"

"_We want you to release our leaders, I'm sure you know who they are. Aro, Caius, and Marcus, we want them free and with charges against them dropped."_

"That's what you want, really?" I laughed, and then my tone became more serious, "There is not a single chance in hell that those three will get out. I'm getting them to stay behind bars for good, maybe even throw in a death sentence or two."

"_Ah Detective Cullen, we thought you would say something like this. That is why I'm calling it a negotiation."_

I looked over to Jasper again, but he just shrugged his shoulders. He didn't know what they were asking for.

"And what makes you think I'll agree to something like that?"

"_Remember I said there was more to that email…"_

I looked back over to the screen, where the text changed once again.

LOOK…

I leaned in closer, the phone still at my ear as I waited for the image to load. The text disappeared, and it looked like it had changed to some sort of video feed. Whatever was being recorded was in total darkness so I couldn't see anything.

"I can't see anything." I told the guy on the phone.

"_Just give it a few seconds detective…"_

I sighed and looked back to the screen, waiting for the video to be clearer or lighter or something. Eventually, a light came on and I could see what was being recorded perfectly.

But as soon as I saw it the breath caught in my throat as I gasped in shock. The phone nearly fell from my hands, and I knew my legs were close to collapsing beneath me.

"_Ta daa!" _ The man said, followed by another chuckle as my eyes were frozen on the screen infront of me.

Even though the evidence at my house pointed the fact that Bella could have been kidnapped, I would have never thought that it would have been at the hands of this murderous gang.

There she was, her body limp as she was tied to a chair. Her body was slumped forward, and her head leaned forward a little, causing some of her hair to cover some of her face. But even with some of it covered I knew without a doubt that it was Bella.

"_I think you recognise our little friend."_

"You son of a bitch! What have you done to her?" I yelled down the phone.

"_Oh don't worry about her; she's just a little limp from a sleeping shot we slipped her. She's fine."_

"What do you want from her?" I growled through clenched teeth.

"_I'll keep it simple for you Detective; you release our three leaders, or we kill your wife."_

I lost my breath again, and my chest suddenly pained at his threat. My eyes never left the screen, never left Bella's unconscious face.

"You're stupid if you think that I'll give in to you that easily." I lied.

"_Oh we know, we're not stupid Detective Cullen, that's why this isn't the only thing. We know that the department won't go for this sort of offer so we have something for them too._

"_If what we ask for isn't completed, then firstly your wife will die. If that's not warning enough, then if it's still not completed we will go on a killing spree around Chicago, and other places around America until you do what we say."_

I was frozen, and I didn't know what to say. My ability to speak pretty much stopped once they threatened to kill her, and now they're threatening the people of Chicago!

"_Oh and one more thing Detective Cullen, rumour around base is that your little wifey…" _he said, and I looked to the video of Bella, _"…is pregnant."_

I froze again, looking to the screen at Bella, how fragile and vulnerable she looked, possibly carrying a baby? _My baby?_

"_We'll be calling you soon to hear your final decision. I'd give this some thought."_ And with that he hung up.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Sooo the Volturi have finally made their intentions known. Let me know what you think of the chapter, sneak previews are given to those who review (make sure private messaging is enabled, and i can't send previews to readers who don't have accounts sorry) thanks to everyone who has alerted, favourited or reviewed this story so far, I really appreciate it :)<strong>

**Thanks again, Jaimie xx**


	14. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

**~~*~~  
>Edward's POV<br>~*~**

It was hard for me to say what was going on in the rest of the room because I was still frozen, phone to my ear, eyes focused on the screen, which the file had returned to its starting page.

The man's words were being replayed in my head. That her life was on the line, that the people of Chicago were in risk, that Bella was_ pregnant_…

I didn't know how to deal with all this information so quickly, didn't know how to react to each fact. Anger? Sadness? Revenge maybe?

"Edward?" I felt Jasper's hand on my shoulder, but he didn't say anything else. He probably didn't know what to say in this situation.

"The Volturi have Bella." Jacob said from next to me, more of a statement than a question. By saying it like that it just made all of this seem so much more real, so much more terrible.

"Why? Who is she?" Vincent asked Jacob, knowing he wasn't getting much of a response from me.

"She's Edward's wife."

"_Ex_-wife." I corrected automatically, but then clenched my eyes shut and thought that there were more important things to deal with than Bella's label.

"Your ex?" Vincent asked, and I opened my eyes to see his own wide, and his expression slightly worried. I looked at him strangely, but his expression quickly changed. "So what? Doesn't that make things easier for you then?" He joked, but I wasn't in the mood for his humour.

I slammed the phone on the desk and bolted upright, moving my way around Jacob's desk. "So does that make things alright then?"

Jasper's hand landed on my shoulder and stopped me from getting to close to Vincent, who had stepped back when he saw me react to his words.

_Good. He should be scared right now_.

"What's going on here? Why aren't you all working?"

Taylor's voice boomed from behind us and I stopped in my steps and I, along with every other face in that room, turned to him.

"What's happened?" He asked, assuming the only reason for all of us to be like this was only if something bad had happened.

All the eyes that were looking at Taylor all simultaneously turned to me instead. Did they not just realise I was momentarily speechless from finding out that news? How did they expect me to relay it back to Taylor? Who, I was sure, was going to be pretty mad about this new situation.

"The Volturi have just been in contact with us." Jasper answered for me, stepping up.

"The Volturi? I thought you closed that case a few weeks ago."

"We did." I said, moving from my position and standing next to Jasper, my eyes aching to take another glance at Jacob's screen. "They wanted to make a negotiation." I said with no emotion in my voice, as my mind decided to replay the image of Bella unconscious and the unnamed man's request.

"And?" Taylor urged.

I looked over to Jasper and tried to silently tell him that I couldn't tell this again.

"We managed to get a recording of the phone call, didn't we?" He checked with the tech guy and he nodded his head. "And there's also the file on the computer."

"Let me hear the call." Taylor ordered, but as the tech guy went to press the button, I quickly held out my hand to stop him. "Can you do it in private please?"

As Taylor watched my reaction, he nodded and gestured for us to follow. "In my office."

Taylor turned away and the tech guy followed carrying a bunch of equipment to his office.

"He's probably going to want to see the file." Jasper said, taking out a memory stick out of his pocket and moving to Jacob's desk, but stopped when he reached me. "It's a secure memory stick, and I swear I'll delete it after Taylor's seen it."

I shook my head. "I need to see it again."

Jasper didn't seem to question my reason, but just moved to Jacob's desk and started to upload the file.

"Cullen?" I turned around and saw Taylor standing at the edge of the room, his expression a mixture of sadness and anger. "My office. I need to see the file you saw as well." His eyes moved to Jacob and Jasper. "Black, Hale, I think you should come with me too."

Jasper unplugged the USB drive and he, myself and Jacob, made our way towards Taylor's office. I was wondering why Jacob and Jasper were with me, unless it had something to do with the Volturi, yet if that was the case then more officers would have been brought up here.

We all stepped into his office and stood behind the desk. Taylor motioned for Jasper to plug in the memory stick, but the tech guy was still here so he just uploaded it for us.

"I think it's on a specialised timed loop." The guy explained. "If you do press 'play' then I don't think the Volturi will ring here again, they must assume we would look at this more than once. Anyway, I think the caller knew he only had so much time to say what he had to say before the image appeared and it would have messed up the whole plan. Pretty clever really."

I glared at the young man who took notice and shrunk back a little in his chair.

"Okay, now can you play this file thing in sync with the call?" Taylor asked and he nodded, pressing a few keys and stopped and sat and looked at the screen expectantly.

Right now the stupid little 'how are you' message probably appeared.

"Pretty pissed right now, so hurry up!" Taylor shouted at the screen. Guess I was right.

After a few seconds, my voice echoed round the room.

"_This is Detective Cullen."…"Hello detective, I see you got our email."_

I turned my back and ran my hand through my hair in frustration. "I can't listen to this again."

Jasper looked at me in sympathy, but I tried not to focus on the voices that were being played infront of me, or the image that was likely to be displayed infront of Taylor any minute now. Instead I tried to block it out and not focus on that.

"…_If what we ask for isn't completed, then firstly your wife will die. If that's not warning enough, then if it's still not completed we will go on a killing spree around Chicago…"_

"Shit." I heard Taylor mutter, but I still ignored it until the thing was finished with.

I didn't realise the call had ended until I heard Taylor calling my voice.

"Cullen? Did you hear me?"

"Sorry, can you repeat that?"

He sighed. "What do you know about this?"

I ran a hand through my hair again and shook my head. "Nothing. So far just the same as you."

"I thought you knew she was kidnapped?"

"Yeah, but not by these bastards!" I said, my hand pointing to the phone and my voice rose, but I quickly calmed myself down and spoke at a lower tone. "I don't know why they wanted her, and not me. She's done nothing wrong."

"How about you Black?" Taylor said, dismissing me and turning to Jacob. "The file appeared on your account, and you know the victim, have anything to say?"

"I swear Chief; I had no idea about this or the email. It just appeared in my inbox and I opened it thinking it was something else."

"Hale, anything you would like to say?"

"I don't know anything more than Edward does, but there was a tape left at his house where we thought Bella might have been taken. On it there was a threat of sorts, and I guess now it's clear it was the Volturi all along."

"Ben," He turned to the tech guy standing off to the side, "get someone to call forensics and see if we can have a copy of that tape." Ben quickly left the room leaving the four of us.

"Edward I hope you know what this now means." I looked up to him in slight confusion as he continued. "After your involvement with the Volturi case and your relationship with the victim, I'm going to have to ask you not to involve yourself with this, you're not allowed to work on it, and same goes for you two." He said to Jasper and Jacob.

"What? That's absurd!" I quickly argued back. "Taylor you've got to let me work on this." I pleaded.

"I'm sorry Edward but you're too emotionally tied to this one. I'm going to have to pass it on to someone else."

"Who then? Which officer are you going to trust to handle a situation like this?"

"No one here. I'm passing it over to the FBI."

"What?"

"The agent who was previously playing a more background role with your previous case is going to take over this one and let the FBI sort it out, especially with the threat that's been given out."

"You're giving this to Agent Weber?"

"Yes, and my decisions final. I'll be informing her of the situation in a few minutes."

"Taylor please, you can't just expect me to stand aside with this?"

"I can and I will. Now if you please I have a few calls to make." He said with a wave of his hand to dismiss us.

"Taylor?" Jasper spoke from next to me. "The Volturi asked for Edward specifically. It's him who they want to talk to and it's his decision they're counting on, no one else's."

"Hale, you know our opinion on hostage situations. We are not letting the Volturi leaders out of jail and that is final."

"So you'll just let Bella die?" I shouted.

"Your ex's loss would be small in comparison with the casualties Chicago may sustain. The FBI will deal with this."

"I don't believe this." I muttered.

"Chief, you need to let Edward do this. Jasper's right if anyone else talks to the Volturi then their actions may be brought forward, and I'm sure you don't want the blood to be on your hands."

Taylor was silent, and I hoped he would listen and agree with Jasper and Jacob.

"I'll consult with Agent Weber and I'll see if she thinks it's appropriate to have you involved. Now I need you all to leave."

I stayed silent as I left his office, but the anger was still fuelling up inside me, and Taylor's words didn't help one bit.

**~~*~~  
>Bella's POV<br>~*~**

What the hell just happened to me?

I felt horrible, all groggy and my head was pounding. It felt like it did when I woke up from the chloroform, except a hundred times worse.

The last thing I could remember was talking to that blonde girl, the doctor, and then I felt something on my arm, a needle…they must have drugged me, that was the only explanation. But why?

I started to panic thinking of what might have happened to me whilst I was unconscious. My clothes were still on my body, and I didn't feel any other pain anywhere else. But still, that doesn't mean they didn't try something. Not knowing what they may or may not have done made me feel sick to my stomach.

Before I could even think too much into it, the door to the room opened suddenly. I must have been panicking so much that I didn't even hear the footsteps in the hall or the lock turning.

The person who came through the door was one person I didn't want to be with. Royce stepped in and gave me a once over and I shivered.

"Don't you worry you're little pretty head, I'm only here to make sure you're awake. But since you look quite lonely, I'll keep you company for a bit."

I recoiled into myself a bit more, and was quite thankful he remained by the door.

"Let me ask you something?" Royce said suddenly from his position, "We know you have a kid, but he was taken from you, right?" I didn't answer him, but my hands clenched by my side. "But if he was still here with you, who would you choose to be with you, if you had to, your son or your husband?"

I planned to just ignore him, but he just looked at me expectantly, "My son." I answered back calmly.

"Really? You answered that pretty quick, are you sure you don't want time to think it through?"

"Well my husband left me so I guess it doesn't need much thought." I said bitterly, and quietly, hoping it was just a stray thought I happened to say out loud.

Royce heard me though, and he was quiet for a while as he studied me, and then suddenly he laughed. "You are such a liar! I can tell by your face, you're still crazy for your…wait a minute, what did you just say?" His voice had quickly changed from patronising to serious. He had moved from his place by the door to step closer to me. "Your husband left you?"

I just nodded, wondering why they didn't know this. They knew about Mason and myself, why not the divorce?

"Shit!" He exclaimed suddenly and quickly ran out of the room, shutting the door behind him and locking it.

I looked at the closed door in curiosity wondering why he had just freaked out like that, but it wasn't long before I got my answer.

A few minutes later, the door was being unlocked again and Laurent burst through along with Royce and this other guy. He stormed up to me and looked me dead in the eye.

"Did he really leave you?"

"Yes…we got a divorce about a month ago."

"Shit!" Laurent shouted moving back, and turned quickly to the other man I didn't know, "How didn't we know about this?"

"It mustn't have been in the database. It might be in it now if we search, I think we just got the timing wrong and looked before the divorce was finalized."

"So what does this mean?" Royce asked.

"It means that we chose the completely wrong person. We probably found the one person who he hates the most at this very moment. The whole plan is going to fail."

_Guess they got that bit right._

"So what should we do?" Royce asked and Laurent just shook his shoulders.

Royce moved around the other guy and pulled something metal from his pants; a gun which he must have had tucked away, and then he aimed it directly at my head.

My breath caught in my throat and my heart suddenly started to beat faster.

"Well then we've got to kill her. Cullen doesn't care for her, she's useless to us. Plus we can't just let her walk out; she'll ID us in no time."

"No, we'll keep her alive for now, we still don't know if Cullen's going to comply with us. He seemed pretty shaken up about it on the phone so I say we wait a bit."

Royce seemed reluctant but he lowered the gun, and I let out a breath I didn't realize I was holding.

Laurent then turned to me, but spoke to the others in the room.

"Anyways, even if it isn't her she wants, he'll definitely want to protect the child she's carrying."

My eyes widened, and my arm moved over my stomach protectively. I can't believe they know.

"So no hurting her," he warned the other men in the room, "well, just not her stomach." He said slyly, grinning and then went to leave the room. "Oh and can someone get Rosalie, we need her checked out." He called out before he finally left, with the rest of the men following behind him, and then once they were all out, shut and locked the door leaving me in the darkness, with my sobs the only thing I could hear.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I'm soooo sorry I never got this out to you yesterday. I said to myself I would stick to a schedule, but I've just been up the wall with school work. Have exams in less than a month! : So I'm going to apologise now, ahead of time, if my updating becomes a bit dotty, I just hope you understand that I need to put my revision and my exams first if I want to get into uni this year...but after that I'm free! :D**

**What did you think of the chapter? For those who I sneak previewed, you happy with your resolved ending? Don't think I'll put up a cliffhanger in the sneak peak again lol :P**

**Thanks for those who have favourited/alerted as well, and remember, review and you get a sneak peak of chapter 14 :D**

**Jaimie xx**


	15. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

**~~*~~  
>Edward's POV<br>~*~**

"What in the world am I going to do?" I asked for anyone to answer. I was sat at my desk with my head in my hands, and Jasper, Jacob and Vincent were in my office with me.

"It's clear isn't it? You're just going to have to agree to their conditions, for the sake of your…ex, and for innocent citizens." Vincent said. Why was he even in here anyway? I'd only known him for a few weeks, he didn't even know Bella.

"Riozzi, do you mind if I just speak to Jacob and Jasper?"

"Oh, yeah, of course, you go right ahead." He said, then walked out of the room.

"So does anyone have an idea?" I asked again.

"Why don't you speak to one of the brothers, see what they know about it?" Jacob offered.

"That's not going to tell me where Bella is though, will it?"

"I still think it might be worth visiting them though," Jasper added, "we can see if it's them who are making all the decisions, and survey who they may have spoken to whilst they have been locked up, it might give us a lead."

"Alright, what time is it?"

Jasper looked to his watch, "Nearly quarter to eleven."

"Dammit, they won't let me in to speak to them at this time of night."

"Don't worry; you can just speak to them tomorrow morning." Jacob said.

"I know, but I don't like sitting here, wasting time, when the Volturi could call at any moment, asking for my decision, or just changing things around altogether, they're in control right now."

"Edward, calm down," Jasper said, "it's only the first night, you'll have time to regain control, you just need to figure out how."

"I might check up on Forensics, see if they have any leads for us. Do you know if the FBI has found out anything?"

Jasper shook his head, "Agent Weber should arrive here late afternoon, but apparently they have about as much info as we do, except they have better resources."

"Also," Jacob added, "I hear that they might actually listen to what you say, rather than give you orders on how to proceed."

"That's good; I could do without them shouting the dos and don'ts on this case." I leaned back in my chair, glancing up to the clock above my door. "You two should go home."

"Are you sure?" Jasper asked, "We don't mind keeping you company."

"I'm sure; I'll need you both fresh-faced and focused for tomorrow. Plus, you'll have to tell Alice what's happened."

He nodded solemnly.

"And I know it would be getting you up early, but I want you both here for half seven. The earlier we talk to the Brothers the better, and I want you two with me to help interrogate them."

"We'll be here." Jacob promised, and then left the office.

"Try getting some sleep Edward." Jasper told me, before he left as well.

When they had gone, I picked up the phone and called through to forensics. I didn't care if it was late, they should be working on it otherwise I'll be shouting at someone.

Apparently they wanted to speak to me anyway, one of the technicians was waiting for the morning to call me, but I told them to get him or her on the line straight away.

"_Detective Cullen I'm sorry I never called, I thought you would be out of the office." _It was a 'her'.

"Even if I am out of the office, if anyone find's out the smallest piece of information, I want them to call this department immediately. Do you understand?"

"_Understood Sir."_

"Good, now what have you got for me?"

"_It's not a lot but it's the first thing we've confirmed. Voice identification matched the first voice on the tape found in your house, with the recording of the call with the Volturi, however there have been no hits in the database."_

"So that brings us back to the start then." I said frustrated.

"_Unfortunately yes Detective, all it does is definitely tie that person to your house."_

I sighed. I had gathered that information when it had happened.

"Thanks anyway." I said and put the phone down, a bit to harshly from my frustration.

I didn't know where to go from here. I was hoping the CSI had found something that could help me find Bella, but I guess that was just wishful thinking.

I was exhausted as well, but I'd feel guilty just falling asleep, in a comfortable bed, in a safe place, when I don't even know if Bella had a bed to sleep on, and she most certainly wasn't in a safe place.

Oh jeez, I don't even know if I would be allowed back into the house again. Not sure if I'd even want to go back, knowing what happened. I'm going to have to go in a motel or something, go back to the house in the morning and get some clothes.

I rubbed my eyes and looked at my watch then checked my wallet to see how much money I had on me. I had enough for a few nights in a motel. I might as well go, save myself another night camping in my office.

I started to finish up in my office, and then I left the station, avoiding the sympathetic stares from my co-workers who must have just found out what happened.

I managed to find a cheap hotel not too far away from the station. I wonder if the department will pay for my lodging since my current house is unavailable. I hope so; I could go to a fancy hotel.

_Dammit Edward, Bella might have a cold floor to lie on, and you're thinking about personal luxuraries. _

My inner conscience was right. All this was my fault, I should be in her place, I don't deserve to sleep on a bed. I know I'm not going to be able to get to sleep tonight, what was the point in even trying. Apart from the guilt, I'd probably keep thinking about that tape and the phone call, the whole situation in general.

I rubbed my face with my hands, trying to keep me partly awake, and then I noticed my phone that I had put on the desk and remembered I had forgot to do something.

I know there was one person who had to know about what was happening. But I'll be honest and say right now I'm too afraid to talk to him myself. He was probably mad at me already for divorcing Bella, who knows what sort of limb-removing plans he had inside his head.

I picked up the phone and dialled my Uncle's number. I wanted them to know too, but they had to relay this message to Bella's brother.

"_Hello?"_ Carlisle answered.

"Hey Carlisle, it's Edward…" I felt a lump in my throat and I tried to swallow it back down, "I'm sorry for calling unexpectedly, but there's something I need to tell you, it's about Bella."

"_What is it son?"_ I heard him say, his tone serious. He probably could tell from the sound of my own voice.

I breathed in to try and not lose it, "Do you remember that case I closed the other day?"

"_The Volturi case? Yes I remember it was on the news, why? What's it got to do with Bella?"_

I didn't even prepare him for it, I just got straight to the point, "They took her Carlisle, they took her and are holding her for ransom, and it's my fault, they wanted to get to me, and now they are saying if I don't do what they say they'll kill her first and then go on a killing spree around the country."

Carlisle remained silent, probably too shocked to answer.

"I don't know what to do Carlisle; my mind is telling me to do different things."

"_Shh Edward, calm down, take a deep breath, go on…" _I did as he said and he continued, _"firstly, it is not your fault, you know yourself the lengths these Volturi characters will go to get what they want, it's just unfortunate that it has happened to you. You'll figure out something to do Edward, you'll be able to get her back."_

"Can you do me a favour?" I asked.

"_Anything Edward."_

"Would you or Esme be able to tell her brother, Emmett?"

"_Can't you reach him?"_

"No," I lied, thinking it better not to admit to him I was afraid of telling her brother, especially as I broke an important promise to him; that I won't let any harm get to her.

"_Alright, I'll go over to his house now, he should be back from work."_

"Thank you Carlisle, and thanks for the support, I think I needed it."

"_No problem, now go and find her."_

"I will." I promised.

**~~*~~**  
><strong>Bella's POV<strong>  
><strong>~*~<strong>

I had somehow managed to get myself to sleep, hoping that when I woke up it was all a dream.

But life isn't that kind.

When I woke up I was in the same room as I was before. Same bed, same walls. The small light bulb in the room was dim, and flickering, so I couldn't see a lot, so when I sat up from the bed I quickly checked my clothing, making sure everything was in place. Just because all my clothes were how they should be doesn't mean nothing happened; however it gives me some piece of mind.

I heard some footsteps in the corridor outside, and they got louder as they got to my room, and then they stopped just outside the door.

The door was unlocked and opened, and in stepped the blonde doctor who had put me unconscious before, Rosalie.

I was far more wary of her this time around. I don't even know what happened to me, but she was the one who injected me. I didn't even realise I had shifted closer to the wall. Wouldn't do much anyway, if she wanted to inject me with something else it wasn't like I could escape.

What if it was drugs? Like heroin or something? Were they purposefully trying to get me addicted to this stuff? I mean a large dose could explain my being knocked out. Yet because it happened so quickly, maybe it was just a sleeping agent.

Rosalie had walked closer to me. She didn't have her big briefcase with her this time, just a small bag, and some sort of cloth in the other.

I panicked, remembering what the last cloth I had saw contained, but she quickly hushed me, knowing what I reacted to, and showed me another black bag, except it was made out of cloth.

"How are you feeling?" She asked, "Any nausea?"

I shook my head, and kept my eyes facing the floor.

"Look," She said, "I'm sorry I had to do that, it wasn't my idea."

"What do you want from me?" I asked, my voice barely above a whisper, but she heard it.

"I can't explain right now, first I need to take you to the bathroom."

"Why?"

Rosalie pulled something out of the first bag, and I recognised the small cardboard box, "To be sure." She said, and then lifted the black one up, "and to be safe. If we move you out of the room for any reason, you have to have this mask on. Again, not my rule."

I started to stand up, and lost my balance a little as I stood, and Rosalie moved to help steady me. Once I could stand upright, Rosalie passed me the balaclava looking thing (except without any holes for my eyes, nose or mouth – it was just a bag really) and I put it on myself. I couldn't make out anything in front of me, and I wasn't happy about that; I was kind of hoping I could take a look of the area.

"Will you be able to walk with that leg of yours?"

I tested my weight onto it, and winced when pain seared through my leg. I shook my head, "I could try and limp, but not for a long amount of time."

"It's not that far." Rosalie held the top of my arm and guided me out of the room. I noticed she hadn't bothered taping my hands together.

"Don't think of doing anything stupid." She quickly warned, "Just know I could knock you out just as easily as some of the men."

I gulped, and nodded my head to her so she knew I understood her warning.

The walk was short. Apart from turning right to go out of the room, we had stayed in a straight line before reaching the bathroom.

Once inside, Rosalie pulled off the Balaclava and as my eyes adjusted to the bright lights within the bathroom, Rosalie placed the cardboard box within my hand.

Knowing what I had to do, I finished my business, and walked out the cubicle with three tests in my hands. All I had to do now was wait.

I was torn between actually wanting the tests to read positive, and wanting them to read negative. And even though I felt bad thinking this, I was edging more towards it being negative.

Apart from my previous reasons of it probably growing up in an unhappy family, the current situation I was in now, my life was at risk, and I didn't want a child to be added to that equation.

"It's time." Rosalie said quietly. I couldn't tell from her expression whether she wanted it to be positive or negative.

I walked slowly over to the sink where I had placed the three tests and picked them all up and looked at each of the little screens, and what they all meant.

Negative.

Negative.

Negative.

I wasn't pregnant.

"They're negative," I told her, "I might just be irregular this month and the test I first took just gave me the wrong result."

"I'll make another trip to the shops for you," Rosalie said, in terms of my upcoming visit from Mother Nature, "and for now we'll just tell the others that the tests were positive and that you're still pregnant. It might save you a beating or two."

My head lifted up from the tests to look at her. I was shocked by her, I mean, she was one of them, surely she would want me hurt like the rest of them. Why the small act of kindness?

"Thank you." I said to her, it was the only thing I could think of.

She said nothing more, but just took the tests from me and handed the balaclava back, before taking me back to the room.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Here's another chap for you :) What do you think? Bella's not pregant, Edward can't tell her brother, and soon there's a possible interrogation with the Volturi leaders.<strong>

**Exams are starting now so bear with me if chap updates are slow.**

**  
>Thanks to everyone who alertedfavourited/ or reviewed this story, as usual reviews get a sneak peek :P**

**Jaimie x**


	16. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

**~~*~~  
>Edward's POV<br>~*~**

I had left the motel I was staying at nice and early. Well, it was so early I might as well have not had any sleep, and any I did have, had me waking up at random moments.

I needed to get my clothes from the house, and I was fortunate enough that forensics had finished up most of their work and I could go in and get my things.

I knew as soon as I stepped back in the house I wouldn't be able to come back and live here, even once this whole thing finishes up. I'd have that constant knowledge that in that spot Bella was pushed down the stairs, in that spot was where she bled, that was the spot that she had tried to call _me._

It was overwhelming, so I made the job of getting my stuff as short as possible.

I was at the station by 7 o'clock in the morning, coffee in hand, leaning against the department vehicle, waiting for Jasper and Jacob to arrive.

It surprised me that Jacob was the first one to pull into the parking lot, but then I had to remind myself that this meant as much to him as it did to me, they had been friends since childhood, and he was just as determined as me to find her.

A minute or so later and Jasper arrived, pulling in next to me and getting straight into the passenger seat of the car. Jacob had sat in the back.

"Ready for this?" Jacob asked as I buckled in.

"Yup. You both prepared?"

I looked in the rearview mirror and saw him nod, Jasper also nodded from besides me. "Who have we got?" Jasper asked.

"We're splitting up to make it easier, the Brother's themselves don't know we're coming in, so it stops them conferring with each other. I'm going to talk to Aro, Jasper I want you to talk to Caius, and Jacob with Marcus. You both know what you need to find out."

"Do we have a specific time period?"

"I don't care, an hour, five, even if it took all day, if it looks like it's going somewhere, keep badgering them until they give us something we can work with."

They both nodded, and we didn't speak again during the ride to the prison. Not that we needed to speak or anything, and we obviously weren't mad at one another (well I might double check with Jacob) but the point was nothing needed to be said. We had a task to do, and every person in this car had a relationship with Bella, and everyone would do their best to complete it.

When we arrived at the jail, after telling the guard who we were here to see and the fact it was for interrogation purposes, and our demands to how they would be set up, he radioed through to get the Brother's ready, and then he checked in our weapons, or any other object we had on us that could be used to cause harm.

Once we had finished with that, another guard told us that they were ready, so with a nod to both Jasper and Jacob, we split up into the different directions that the guard had told us to go to, to speak with each person.

I knew I would be talking to the true leader of the Volturi. Sure, there were three of them, but Aro was the one who made the big decisions. The three would talk and see what would be best, but it didn't matter as it was normally Aro's decision was the one that goes.

Bearing in mind these three had been going for a few decades, they didn't look that old. Whether it was investing their criminal winnings into plastic surgery or simply down to good ageing. Either way, they clearly dyed their hair.

As I rounded the corner, I could see the cell. Aro was already in the room. Well, the room was basically just another, bigger cell with a table and chairs in (no bunk beds) with Aro sat in the chair in his orange jumpsuit, handcuffed to the table.

"Ahh, Detective Cullen, I've been wondering when I was going to speak to you."

The guard unlocked the door and let me in, following behind me and locked the door. Another guard moved to the previous guard's post.

"Have you been wanting to see me Aro?"

"Yes I have actually, I don't think our little confrontation in the house could count, I wanted to have a proper conversation with the man who, after several decades of us hiding, manages to arrest _and_ charge all three of us! If my hands weren't attached to this table, I'd give you a round of applause."

"Save the flattery for someone who cares."

"Calm down Detective, I'm simply admiring your work."

"Just cut it out Aro," I said, starting to get frustrated, "I'm not here to talk about that case."

"Well why are you here Detective? Surely this isn't a personal visit is it?"

"You know damn well why I'm here."

Aro looked at me in confusion. "Well I had presumed it was something to do with my arrest, but looking at the expression on your face, I can clearly say that's not the case. Hmmm, I can probably make an assumption; I'm normally quite good at guessing."

I shook my head at him, "That's not necessary."

"Please, let me have a go," he continued, he leaned forward in the chair, a slight smile on his face in delight to his challenge, "let's see, in reaction to our arrest, they've created a revenge plan of sorts to get us out."

I simply nodded my head.

"And based on your stature, the clenched fists, the tired, but furious eyes, the vein sticking out on your neck, I'm also guessing this has some sort of personal affect on you, it's not just ruining your simple plan of finishing up with our arrest and that be it."

I tried to relax my stance, hating the way he could unhinge me and figure out things just by looking at me.

"So the question is…who is it that as got you wound up so tight?" He said, studying me, his head angled to one side.

"Your little group of followers are threatening the entire country, a nationwide massacre, unless we free you three."

"Wow," Aro said, leaning back into the chair, he actually looked like that sort of information shocked him, "I wouldn't have thought they would have gone through so much. But still Detective, you're missing something out…" He looked at me for a few more seconds, and then just as if the idea had just hit him in the face, he started laughing.

His laughing continued for a few more moments until he eventually spoke, "They have your wife don't they?" He asked, but through his chuckling, he knew he was right. "They're better than I expected."

His callous laugh fired my anger, and I moved around the table so fast it took me literally a second, and grabbed his jumpsuit in my hands. My sudden attack had left him silent.

"Detective?" The guard warned from behind me, as if he was bringing me out of this anger mode.

I let go of his clothes with a hard shove, the chair rocking slightly from the force.

Aro seemed to shake it off, clearing his throat, as though that didn't even bother him.

"It seems your emotional attachment to this has affected your judgment Detective."

"I'm perfectly capable in handling this." I told him, pacing behind the table.

"Clearly." He answered back. "All I was saying Detective, was that I was commending my team in thinking this through. When you just mentioned that 'killing spree' idea, I admit I think it's too rash, and if I was in charge of this operation, I would certainly condone this sort of idea, but using your wife…well that's right up my street." He grinned at me, and I tried to control myself so I wouldn't wipe it off his face.

Instead, I put my thoughts to the task in hand, and trying to see if he knew anything.

"So you didn't know about this?"

Aro shook his head, "All I know is what you've just informed me of, and I know myself that's not all the details."

I sat down in the chair opposite him, "Well let's say you were in charge of this operation, what would you do?"

"Would I be given extra credit if I give you guidance?"

"We'll see," I said, even though it pained me to even have the idea of letting these people go free early, "it depends how good your guidance is."

"Hmmm, so if I give exceptional guidance, could I perhaps lose my life sentence?"

"No," I answered back immediately, "I meant it when you three were staying here for life, if you did help us we would just give you certain…privileges."

He thought about it for a few moments, and then shook his head, "Nope, can't think of anything, the people who are running this now have different ideas to me, I would be no help to you." He never broke eye contact whilst he spoke, but I knew he was holding back on me.

"I think we're finished here now Detective," Aro stated, and then looked over my shoulder to the guard, "I want to be taken back to my cell now."

The guard came over and un-handcuffed him from the table, and guided him out of the cell, and just as he walked past me he stopped, turning his head in my direction.

"Things always go our way Detective, please remember that." The guard pushed him to keep him walking, and I never turned around, but I heard the unlocking and opening of the door as he was let out.

"Dammit!" I yelled to myself, slapping my hand down on the table in fury. It had gotten me no where; speaking to Aro had unveiled nothing. I sincerely hope Jacob and Jasper have found something worthwhile.

I pushed myself up from the desk and left the room, nodding goodbye/thanks to the guard who was stood outside, and then I walked back to the main reception, collecting my belongings and then walked outside.

Jasper and Jacob were waiting outside the car, so I unlocked it from a distance to let them in, and then I walked to the car and got in.

"Did you manage to get anything?" I asked them both as soon as I had buckled in, and started the engine.

"Marcus didn't know a thing," Jacob said, leaning forward in his seat, "I tried to ask him information about the whole ransom thing, but he kept asking whether he could be given a shorter sentence, saying he was forced into the Volturi by his brother."

"Doesn't matter, he could have left but he never, he'll get the same punishment as the rest of them," I said, "Jasper, what about you?"

"Same as Jacob, nothing. He had an idea that their followers would do something for them, but he didn't know what, and he certainly didn't plan it. So I asked if he knew where they could have gone, but he said that they only knew of their bases in Chicago since that was where they resided."

"Shit." I said, hitting the steering wheel. If I kept up with this I was going to have an injured hand. I had hoped interrogating these three would have me walking out with a new lead and a better chance of finding Bella. Instead I came out with nothing, except I guess now the leaders are in the loop of the plan that their minions formed. I just pray they don't find a way to guide them.

"You were really relying on this, weren't you?" Jacob asked, and I just nodded a response.

"There'll be something else Edward, don't worry."

I simply nodded, hoping that what Jasper said would be true, because right now I had nothing.

*

It was about half past two and I'd just finished the shortest lunch I'd possibly had, knowing all the time I had could be spent trying to find a lead, because I didn't know how much time I actually had.

I was walking across the main room, when someone said my name.

"Edward," Jasper called as I walked past. I stopped and looked at him, with a huge smile on his face as he finished talking to whoever he was talking to on the phone, and then he put it down.

"Who was that?"

"The justice department, they've set a date for the Volturi hearing."

Jacob, apparently eavesdropping, leaned over from where he was standing. "When?"

"In a few weeks time. They wanted to bring forward the time based on the high profile that this case has."

"Will our lawyers have enough time to build a case?" I asked.

"They would have been ready as soon as the arrest was made; all they would have had to do was connect the final dots."

"Well this is great isn't it?" Jacob said, probably in question to my expression. I wasn't as excited as I thought I would be.

"What if this aggravates the Volturi? They could do something unexpected; it could put Bella in more harm."

"I think you're worrying about it too much Edward, they would have known a case would happen quickly, all it does is give them a timeline."

"A timeline. So that means I have just over a month to sort this out?"

Jasper hesitated, "No, for all we know they could wait till after the hearing, if they're given a biased jury they could walk free."

"I don't think they're going to take that chance Jasper." I said, running my hand through my hair.

"Well they haven't been in contact with you have they?" Jacob added, "Who knows, Jasper might be right, they could give you longer than a few months."

"It still means Bella would be in their hands longer than she should be." I said quietly, but they both heard me, and from the silence I got in response, I assumed they agreed with me.

I noticed Vincent was walking towards us so I quickly called him over. "Could you do us a favour? Go tell Taylor that there's been an estimated date for the hearing for the Volturi case."

"Sure, when is it?"

"A few weeks time, exact date hasn't been decided yet, but we know it won't be long." He nodded his head and turned back around.

"So what are you going to do?" Jasper asked.

I paused, thinking about it, because there wasn't much I actually could do.

"Just keep doing what we were doing already, this hearing hasn't affected us, all it's done is give the Volturi leaders themselves something to worry about. Who knows, they might push for a later hearing, especially now they know there's a plan to get them out, I'm sure they'll try and stall that hearing for as long as they possibly can."

"Let's hope they don't." Jacob added quietly.

"Right, get back to whatever you were doing, don't want Taylor to come in here and tell us off for slacking. Thanks for letting me know that Jasper." I said to him, and then walked to my office.

I was feeling separate emotions when I sat back down behind my desk.

The first one, was a strange form of elation. If it wasn't for everything else that was happening, I would have been delighted by how soon the hearing would be. It would mean no unnecessary time wasting, and we could get the leaders tried and charged with all the crimes they had committed, and hopefully disband the Volturi gang.

On the other hand, I was feeling a weird sense of dread. This was possibly the worst time for them to set the date, in the middle of all this shit. Although it would be great to get the Volturi given a life sentence, I didn't like the fact it could severely affect this situation, and not for the better.

I didn't feel one emotion more than the other, like I thought I would have. I guess instead of focusing on what emotion I should be feeling, I should be working as hard as I could, give an added boost to what forensics would be doing, and do something that would make me feel less useless and guilty.

At first I started contacting the people who could connect with the CCTV that was in my area to see if it caught a vehicle, and therefore perhaps a license plate. If I could get something solid like that, then it would be as easy as pie to track the license plate number and then get a location. Of course that's hoping the Volturi haven't come up with some way to block their plates from cameras.

Unfortunately they hadn't had a chance to get the tapes and have a look at them, so after a mini rant at them, I decided to move to something else.

I knew I had to analyze the video footage. You see on episodes of CSI of them finding a microscopic detail on a photo or video that matches with a specific location and then just like that they solve the case and all is good. I guess it does sound silly, but right now, and with nothing else to go on at the moment, this was as good a time as ever to just give it a try.

You would probably think I could have left this to the Forensic team, I'm sure their analytical equipment is far better than my eye, but still, I wanted to have a look at it myself, take notes on anything out of the ordinary and then follow it up with research to see if it gave me a location.

If the forensic team find something microscopic in one teeny-tiny part of the video then great, if I can find something as well, before them, that would be even greater.

I loaded up the disc and fast-forwarded it to the video part. I grabbed a notepad and a pen, and as soon as it first appeared, I paused the clip, leaving me a still of Bella drugged and tied up.

Just as I was about to zoom in on the first corner of the screen, the clip flickered. I waited for it to pass, thinking that the computer was slow and that it done this sort of thing before. But then it flickered again, and again, and continued to happen.

I tried to close the tab but the whole thing was frozen, the mouse wouldn't even move for me. I tapped the side of the monitor, a usual way for me to fix this sort of thing. When nothing happened, I went to hit the power button on the main console to reset it, when I heard people talking outside. From what I could make out, they seemed to be having computer problems as well.

I got up out of my chair and outside of my office, looking across the room to see a commotion that only occurs when IT fails on you.

"What the hell is happening?" I asked, walking over to Jasper, who was tapping his monitor to try and get a signal.

"No one knows."

"The whole system just crashed on us," Jacob said, "apparently it's only this floor that has the problem; some of the IT guys are trying to figure it out now."

"Wait a minute, I'm getting something." Jasper said, looking intently at the screen.

"Is it fixed?" I asked, walking over to his desk to look at the computer, but it still had that same flickering page on.

"No, it's something else; it just appeared but then disappeared just as fast."

"Wait a minute," Vincent said, "I think I'm getting that same thing."

"Me too." Jacob added.

There were calls around the room of people who were getting this same image appearing and then disappearing before anyone could get a proper look at it.

I made my way back to my office and sat in my seat, looking at the screen, and really focusing to see if I could see it.

But when it appeared this time, it didn't go away. The message that had been put on the screen was clear for all to see, but it was addressed, specifically, for me.

_**TO EDWARD CULLEN,**_

_**EXPECT A CALL 6PM TOMORROW EVENING**_

_**WE HOPE YOU'VE MADE A DECISION…DON'T KEEP US WAITING**_

I was frozen in my chair. It was weird, because I knew they would contact me soon, but as soon as they did I was at a complete loss for what to do. I'm just grateful they gave me extra time to think, and not put me on the spot.

I was emotionless as I walked out of my office, and as I expected, everyone was looking at me. I could spot Jasper's and Jacob's heads over everyone else's.

I looked to the two of them and motioned for them to come into my office. They understood, they didn't need any verbal order.

"Why now?" I asked as soon as they walked in, "Is there something important that happened today that would cause them to get in touch?"

"I think it's just coincidental Edward, we all knew they were going to call, I think it's just a shock that it's happened now, so quickly."

"Maybe there was something," Jasper said, "I mean, we did visit the leaders today."

"Don't forget as well," Jacob added, now remembering something, "the date of the hearing came in today, maybe they are basing their decisions on that."

"But how did they find out so quickly? We barely knew over an hour ago, and it's not out in the press."

"It wouldn't be that hard to get some information, they've just crashed our system, I think they can find out about a court hearing."

It could be possible, but still, does that mean I have a month to make this decision, and tomorrow they'll tell me how things will work, or will tomorrow _be_ the decision, life or death situation.

"I can't make this decision here." I said quietly to myself. I looked to Jasper and Jacob. "Jacob, will you tell Taylor what's just happened, and Jasper, will you try and get in touch with Agent Weber, tell her not to bother coming in this afternoon, but come in early tomorrow morning instead." They both nodded. "And I also want you both to go home, we had an early start today, I think Taylor wouldn't mind if you left a little earlier."

They both nodded again, "What are you going to do?" Jasper asked me.

"I've got a lot of thinking to do, and it won't get done if I'm in here."

"Are you sure you don't want our help?" Jacob said, "It might make it easier for you."

I shook my head, "No, I need this to be my decision alone, no one else's."

"Whatever's good for you mate." He said, and then left the office.

Jasper came over and rested his hand on my shoulder, "If by chance you do need us..."

"I know." I said, answering his unasked question, then he patted my shoulder and then left me.

I looked at the time and it was just past 4 o'clock. I had 26 hours to make the decision.

I packed up my stuff and left, planning to head to my motel room and go through the pros and cons of each decision, see what would happen if I followed a certain path.

An hour had passed and I was still considering all the different ways that this could turn out, taking into account all of my options. And it wasn't just Bella's life that I was thinking about, but it was my possible child's as well.

I didn't realise how hard this decision would actually be.

My phone vibrated next to me, giving me a break from this. It was a text from Jasper.

_You need to come to mine straight away, you'll realise why._

Confused, but also slightly worried, I text back saying I would be right down.

I couldn't think of anything important that would require me down at their house. They knew what I was currently deciding; anything small could have been sorted out by a simple phone call, or even asking someone else.

I soon arrived at Alice's and Jasper's, and parked outside the house. I knocked on the door and Alice opened it, her face slightly worried.

"There's someone here to see you." She quickly warned me, and then she let me in. I spotted a suitcase in the hall.

Before I could ask who, I walked into their front room and found out exactly who, and who the suitcase belonged to.

Emmett Swan.

He was over six foot tall, taller than me, short dark hair and the same brown eyes as Bella. The man was made of muscle. He didn't take anything, but ever since he was young, Bella told me he had always been big, and as he grew up and started to work out, he just became even bigger. I mean I would say I was toned, but compared to him you would definitely pick him over me if it came to a fight.

He was only a few years older than Bella, but since their father died, he has done everything he can to protect her. He couldn't go away to college because he had to stay and look after Bella until she became eighteen, but some life decision made him stay in the little town of Forks, and he now has the job his father once had. Chief of police.

He looked down at me with pure hatred, and before I even knew it, he had tackled me to the floor and punched me in the face.

"You heartless bastard!" He shouted in my face, his hands grasping my shirt, "You swore to me she wouldn't get hurt, you swore!" Then he punched me again. I heard Alice screaming in the background for Jasper.

He grabbed my shirt in his hands, "If anything happens to her, because of you, I swear on my father's grave you will pay for it."

Jasper had entered then, and pulled Emmett off of me without any resistance, as Alice helped me to my feet, and holding a tissue to my face, it must be bleeding. "Come on mate just calm down," Jasper tried to tell Emmett, keeping himself between me and him.

"It's alright, I'm good." He said, although his eyes were still trained on me. "That was just for her getting kidnapped; don't even get me started on everything else." He warned, and then walked past Jasper and brushed past me and left. "I'll be speaking to you later Cullen." He called out before going upstairs, leaving me to get a hold onto what just happened.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: How great am I posting during exams? :D Soo what do you think? Emmett's returned, and Edward has a tough decision to make.<strong>

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chap, and to those who alerted/favourited, as usual, review and you will get a special preview of the next chapter :)**

**Thanks, Jaimie**


	17. Chapter 16

**Chapter 16**

**~~*~~  
>Edward's POV<br>~*~**

My face was stinging like hell.

Of course, Alice being Alice went straight into the kitchen and wrapped an ice pack in a towel and pressed it to my face.

Me being me, put it straight back down onto the table as soon as she walked out of the room, so Bella's big brute of a brother in front of me wouldn't think I was a weak baby. What can I say? I'm a guy, I still have some pride.

I was also on edge, to say the least.

Emmett was sitting on the couch opposite me, and he was giving me this look, like he was studying me, trying to figure something out.

I on the other hand, apart from getting increasingly more worried under his glare, just decided to let him speak first since he was the one who wanted to talk.

Finally, he spoke. "Why didn't you fight back?"

I looked up to him, "Huh?"

"When I knocked you to the ground, why didn't you fight back? I mean, I do sort of know you Cullen, I'm assuming you wouldn't normally let a guy walk all over you like that. Why the hold back? And I want the truth, not some smart-ass comment about how you wouldn't want to hurt me."

I sighed, "Honestly, I truly believed that I deserved it."

"What?" Emmett asked, shocked. I don't think he was expecting me to say that.

"Bella should have never been involved in my work. I never thought what I was doing would put her in danger, it's my fault entirely the Volturi have taken her, they want me, and to get to me they took her.

"I understand completely why you're angry with me Emmett, and you giving me that beating, well, it just showed how much at fault I am, and that I needed to be punished for it. I swear Emmett, if anything happens to her, I'll gladly let you kill me."

"Don't worry, I wouldn't have asked for your permission anyway." Emmett smiled, but his tone remained quite serious.

"Jasper was telling me," he continued, "about what happened on the tape." Emmett's whole expression had changed. His menacing, protective older brother demeanor had gone, and in it's place, the worrying older brother.

Never in my life would I have said that I had seen Emmett in a vulnerable state, even when Bella's dad had died, I could see the calm façade that Emmett put up, to look strong for her. But now, with the only family he has left in trouble, all the strong walls had come down and I could see his vulnerable side.

"Can I see it?"

"No," I answered immediately, "it was bad enough for me Emmett, I can't imagine what it might do to you, you can't see her like this."

Emmett suddenly stood up, his finger pointed at me, "You can't tell me what to do Cullen, she's my sister and I need to see this tape for myself. I'm only asking you because you're the only person who will have some sort of a copy, because you're stupid police chief is keeping all that information locked up to any departments outside of his own."

"I don't have a copy," I told him honestly, "Jasper did make one on his flash drive, but he promised me he would delete it straight after it was used for its purpose, I doubt he still has it."

"Well take me down to the station."

"Emmett, I really don't think this is a good idea…"

"I'm not asking to go Cullen." He said to me, his voice raising.

I sighed and stood up, "Fine, do you want to go now?"

"That was what I was hoping for, yes. And stop by a McDonald's on the way, I'm starving."

I thought he was joking, but after paying for a large meal for Emmett, since he conveniently left his money in the house, we arrived at the station. The officer on reception didn't question who Emmett was; I think he was too scared of Emmett's size to even question him.

I walked hastily to my office because I didn't want people (i.e. Taylor) to know that I was showing someone else this tape. Emmett got the idea and followed behind quickly.

Once inside I shut the blinds and started searching for a disc on my desk. Taylor had told Ben the technician to give me a copy after I asked him for it, saying it could help for the investigation. He was too stressed with everything that was going on to think of any ulterior motives, and I was quite glad he isn't as sharp as he used to be.

I hadn't looked at that email since the computers had gone down before. The disc had just been sitting on my desk, and I keep telling myself I'm going to have to have another look at it. Plus, I had the geeks down in IT to try and find a location on the computer that had sent the email in the first place.

I logged onto the computer and put the disc in, and then offered Emmett the seat.

"I'm alright standing." He said, moving closer to the computer.

I pushed it towards him, "You're going to need it." I told him, and he looked at me as if to say he wasn't that weak, but he pulled it towards him and sat in it anyway.

The little box with the email appeared, and I grabbed the mouse. "You ready?"

"Yeah," He said confidently, "just play it."

I done what he said and stepped back a bit, so that the computer was at an angle to me so I couldn't see the screen that well, but I could see Emmett's face.

His expression was unreadable. I don't think he was even listening to the conversation that had been added to the background, all he was doing was focusing on that computer screen, waiting for the moment when Bella would appear.

When the word 'look' appeared on the screen, Emmett leaned forward a bit, and I knew it was a matter of seconds before he saw it.

"Oh God," I heard him say, when the video appeared, "Oh, Bella…" he whispered to himself as he watched the video, "how do you turn this off?" He said loudly, and I was quite stunned that he wasn't able to watch it. Emmett settled for switching the monitor off instead of fiddling with any controls, and a small part of me was glad that he switched it off before the small part about her being pregnant came on; I just know it would give him another excuse to hit me, putting his possible niece or nephew in that same position.

There was silence for a couple of minutes in the office. I would let Emmett speak in his own time; it wouldn't be easy to get over seeing your sister like that.

"Have you got any leads?" He eventually asked, although his voice was thick with emotion. He tried to cough it out but I could still hear it.

"No, the Volturi leaders got in touch today but apart from that we've got nothing."

"How long do we have?"

"They sent me another email before, they're due to call me tomorrow at 6pm exactly, they'll probably tell me then how much time we have."

"Well what are you going to say?"

"I don't know…"

"What do you mean you don't know?" Emmett said angrily standing up from the chair, the force in which he stood up sent the chair sliding into the wall behind, "Edward this is Bella we're talking about, my little sister! There's even a bloody state-wide threat, its obvious isn't it?"

"It's not that simple Emmett; these are the leaders of the _Volturi_! I've managed to do what no man has been able to do for decades, and with them locked up, streets in the whole of America will be safer."

"Don't you think they'll just get someone else to take their place?"

"Does it look like they're trying to find someone to take their place," I said, motioning to the computer, "the whole organization is in disarray, it's only a matter of time before we bring the rest of them down. But if we let them back onto the streets…" I shook my head, "who knows what'll happen."

"Can't you just let them go, get Bella back and then shoot them dead so there can't be anything like this again?"

"That's a bit dark isn't Emmett?"

"Yeah, but don't tell me that sort of idea hasn't passed through your mind."

I didn't want to tell the truth and say 'yeah, I have wanted to choose the easier option and just have them taken out by some sort of Special Forces team', because it would just be putting this down as an actual solution to this whole problem.

"No I haven't."

"Sure you haven't." He muttered to himself.

"Look Emmett, this isn't a simple decision that I can sleep on and know what to do in the morning, there are severe repercussions for each choice."

Emmett walked around from behind the table and stood a foot away from me.

"I didn't take you to be a coward Edward, I believed, and this department believed, that you were right for this job because you took chances, you knew what to do when the time came and it always turned out for the best." He looked me straight in the eye, "Try and figure out a way to do both. And don't leave this office until you do." And with that, he walked out the office.

**~~*~~  
>Bella's POV<br>~*~**

No one had been in to see me.

With no measure of time on me, and not one window in the room, I couldn't even tell what time of day it was. For all I knew, I could be awake at 3 o'clock in the morning.

The only thing I could do was lie on the bed and go over my thoughts.

I wasn't pregnant. Again, my thoughts on being relieved or upset were still undecided, but for now I guess it would be for the better. It's weird to think, looking back in hindsight, that if Alice would have had three pregnancy tests remaining, none of this would have probably happened. I couldn't blame this on Alice however, it could have been just as easy for me to walk down the general store and buy another box, but no, not me, I decided to just go right down to Edward's and waltz right into a trap.

As well as that, I still didn't know what to make of this Rosalie character. For taking part in a hostage situation, you would think every single one of them would be treating me like crap. But not her, why? And why didn't she just decide to tell everyone else that I was in fact 'without child' and let them do what they want. She told them in the first place, it must have been to reduce the amount of attacks on me. Could it have been? Was this person genuinely being kind to the enemy?

Thirdly, I had no idea what these people were planning.

It had something to do with Edward, that was for sure, and I had to assume this was some sort of organized crime or terrorist group. But why was I so important? I tried to think of any cases Edward would speak to me about, gangs, crime families, and then one name jumped off the list. The Volturi.

I was so shocked to myself that I hadn't thought of it before that I ended up sitting up straight from the bed. It was so obvious now that it was them, but still, what did they have planned?

I'd created more questions than I had answers for, and before I could think about anything else, there was a loud noise from the door, and I jumped in shock.

It opened and Royce stood there with a tray in his hands, and the blonde doctor, Rosalie, was standing behind him.

I could smell the food before I even saw it, only realizing now that I hadn't eaten at all when my stomach started to rumble loudly.

Royce walked in, and placed the tray in the middle of the room, and turned to walk away when Rosalie stopped him, "She can barely walk."

"Does it look like I give a shit if she can walk?" He said to her, looking down on her, and then he glanced over his shoulder to me, giving me a cold glare, before continuing to walk out the door, "If you're so bothered, take it to her yourself." And then he shut the door.

Rosalie sighed, and set her black bag down, a bag I didn't realize she had been carrying, and then picked up the tray for me and set it on the bed next to me.

I picked it up straight away, and didn't even think about manners, or what the hell I was even eating, I was that hungry, that I just kept eating.

"Have you tried walking on your foot?" Rosalie asked, and I wasn't ready to answer the question, my mouth was full of food, so instead of being rude or trying to swallow it, I just shook my head. "Alright then," she unzipped the bag and I was a lot more wary about what she was taking out this time, "I've got an icepack for you, and a bandage I need to put on."

She knelt down and slowly took my shoe off. I winced as it brushed against my skin.

I hadn't even seen my foot since I got here, and I could see it now, the bruises that had formed, my ankle was black and blue. Rosalie quickly wrapped a bandage around it, and then went to get some tissue to wrap the icepack in.

Thirsty, I grabbed the cup of water that was on my tray, but before the rim reached my lips, Rosalie quickly said, "I wouldn't if I were you," I looked up at her confused, but she explained, "Royce spat in it."

Disgusted, I quickly put it down. I didn't even want it on my tray. But I was so thirsty, what was I meant to drink?  
>Understanding my dilemma, she pulled out a water bottle from her bag and tossed it onto the bed next to me. "Thought you might need it." She said, and I uncapped the bottle and gulped down the water.<p>

She noticed I had finished with my food, so she took the tray from me and set it on the floor, and then she helped me lift my foot back onto the bed and supported it with a pillow, and then rested the icepack against it.

I couldn't help it, I had to ask.

"Why are you helping me?" Rosalie looked up at me, slightly shocked at the question, "I mean, I thought all of you were on the same team."

"Doesn't necessarily mean I agree with what they're doing, I never wanted to have any part in this," Rosalie answered, "not a single part of it."

Assuming she wasn't just talking about my kidnapping, I wondered whether she would open up and talk to me.

"Then why did you join them?" I asked, but from the cold look I got from her, I think I was pushing a bit too far.

"I didn't join them, I didn't put my name down for this like the others, I was forced into it."

"Then why don't you just leave?"

She scoffed, "Do you really think it's that easy? To just pack up your stuff and go? Once in, you're in it for life. Anyone who runs away, you end up seeing their name in the 'condolences' section of the newspaper saying they had a 'terrible accident'. The only way out of this and actually living, is early retirement, and I am no where near the high ranks that the option for retiring is available."

"Do you mind me asking why you joined then?"

"Yes, I do actually. You're the hostage; I shouldn't be even speaking to you, never mind telling you all of this."

She stopped speaking, and I thought I had pushed too far, when she spoke again, "But right now you're the only person in this place who I can actually talk about this sort of stuff."

She moved and sat on the other end of the bed, slightly away from my foot to not unrest it. "I'm from Washington too you know," She started, "grew up in a small town and even went to University in Seattle, studying Medicine of course.

"I didn't want to be a Doctor; it was something else that was forced onto me by my parents. I had always had an interest in cars, but they always used to tell me that Medicine was the way to go, and that being a mechanic and owning a garage would get me nowhere.

"Royce King, the man who was in here before, was not the man I had fell in love with. He was just the son of a family friend who had made it known to my parents that he liked me. It's obvious to see the mask he put on in the past; unfortunately my parents fell for it and for a while I did too. To them he was polite, chivalrous, and wealthy, the perfect man for their daughter.

"To appease them, we went on a few dates, and eventually we started going out properly. I'm not sure whether my liking for Royce was just because my parents liked him, but after a few months of spending time together, I fell in love with him. Well, I thought I had.

"A few years into my relationship with Royce, my car ended up failing on me, and since I didn't have the necessary parts to fix it myself, I took it to a local mechanic."

I watched Rosalie's face, her eyes distant as she remembered, and she smiled to herself at a certain part of the memory.

"There was a boy who was working there on work experience. I can still remember him pulling himself from under the car when he heard a customer, and then watched him hit his head on the underside of it when he saw me." She laughed to herself, "I had actually spotted something on the engine he was working on and told him there was a mistake, but he was adamant he was right. I just stood there and laughed at him when the oil spurted out in his face.

"We started talking, first about cars and then about some other things. Ended up talking till he finished work, and I was having such a good laugh with him we continued it to a local diner not too far from the garage.

"He was so funny and carefree; it felt really nice to talk to someone else for a change. Royce had become very protective over me, especially when I would talk to guys.

"But it was completely different; I did love Royce, but after meeting this guy it felt like it was just because I had been with him for so long, however with this other guy, there was a spark, an instant chemistry, and when he had asked me out, Royce just went straight out of my mind and I said yes.

"I didn't want to string Royce along whilst I saw how it went with this other guy, so I broke up with him without a second thought, and started going out with the stranger from the mechanics. And it was perfect; I actually fell in love in a matter of weeks. He was tall, good-looking, he looked like a jock but he was the perfect gentlemen, and girl to girl, he was great in bed."

Her expression then quickly saddened, "A few months into the relationship, Royce ended up finding me, saying that he loved me and that us breaking up was a mistake. At that point in time, I still had a feeling or two for Royce. He was my first love, and I guess there is always some sort of feeling for your first love.

"Of course he didn't know I was seeing somebody else, but he started sending all this romantic stuff to try and win me back, and then one day I was coming out of my apartment building when he was stood outside my door, and as soon as he saw me he got down on one knee, and offered me a ring."

Her fingers started to absentmindedly twist the ring on her finger. I guess she didn't have to tell me which option she chose.

"He was heartbroken when I told him, the mechanic guy." She said, her eyes glassy from a build up of tears. "I can't get that day out of my head, telling him I was going with someone else, that I was going to _marry _him and that I would never see him again. I remember driving away, and I was telling myself not to look in the rearview mirror, but I couldn't help it, I had to have one last glance. And he was still stood in the same position as before, looking longingly at my car.

She lifted her hand to her face to flick a fallen strand of hair that had fallen on her face, and she subtly wiped her cheek, a tear I presumed. She clearly didn't want to show she was crying in front of me, so I pretended I hadn't noticed. "As I was driving away I had one fleeting thought, that perhaps I had made the wrong decision, but then stupid, naïve me told myself to go with what I had believed to be the better choice, a wealthy, well-educated man who could give me the life I wanted."

She paused, and when she spoke again, her voice was cold. "I didn't find out about his activities in the gang until a few months after we got married. He became a different person, treating me like dirt, lounging around in the apartment in the day doing sod all then going out in the night with his mates getting up to god knows what, spending money we didn't have. I was oblivious to this, thinking it was a random phase and it would pass over. My mind was focused on getting my Medical degree, I just thought he was stressing over his job or something, but he would never talk to me about it.

"Then one week I walk into our apartment and he says he has this great news, that he had been offered a position in this business. I knew something was wrong when he hesitated in telling me who this business was, kept repeating that they had a position for me too, but I kept asking who he was going to work for.

"As soon as he mentioned Volturi I felt like killing him. I couldn't believe he would knowingly go for something like that, especially after the serial killings just a few years before. I didn't even know how he could find a job like that.

"I remember telling him that if he got involved then I wanted a divorce and that I wouldn't want anything to do with him."

She took a deep breath, "Suddenly things started getting out of hand. He was yelling at me saying I would do this if I loved him, and then when I continued declining he would hit me, and then soon he was making threats at me, he even found out about the guy I was seeing when I broke up with him, saying he would kill him instead because he could see I had feelings for him."

She turned and looked at me then, the first time she made eye-contact during the conversation, and there was something clear behind her eyes; fear. She was scared; she truly was forced into this situation.

"I have been in this job for almost 10 years, and not once have I actually wanted to do this. You have to know that, I can't leave, not ever."

It was silent between us, but something came up in my mind, an idea, and knowing I was about to say it out loud to what many would say is the enemy, was absolutely crazy.

"I might be able to do something for you, it might not work, but you can give it a try."

"Let me ask you a question that not two minutes ago you asked me, why would _you_ want to help _me_? I'm the enemy, no matter what I've been through; you should still hate me for just being in this gang."

I shrugged, "I guess everyone should have a chance at a decent life, and no matter how much you try and hide behind that mask you put on when you're around others, when you're around Royce, anyone can see you don't want this, and I think you should be able to live a proper life, not one subjected to kidnapping and murder and whatever else you do."

Rosalie looked completely shocked. "You are completely backwards," She started, "but I'm extremely grateful that you've understood me, and that you're trying to help me, but I don't deserve any retribution."

"Everyone deserves retribution… well apart from really, really bad people, and I don't think you're one of them, so would you just give it a try, please?"

She took a deep breath in and studied me, "What would you get out of this?"

I thought for a moment, I didn't think about negotiating my own side of this.

"I'm assuming letting me go free is out of the question," I had meant it for it to be rhetorical, but Rosalie nodded her head anyway, "well then I'm not sure, keep those men off me I guess."

"That's it?" She asked astonished.

"Well yeah, I can't really bargain for anything else. I'm just trusting you not to get the better of me."

"You're trusting me? Did I mention you were backwards?" The hint of a smile formed on my lips, and it hit me that it was the first time I had even attempted a smile in a long time.

Rosalie hadn't noticed my little realization, but instead she was thinking about what to do. "I'll try and find something for you." She then sighed and turned to me, "What do I have to do?"

**~~*~~  
>Edward's POV<br>~*~**

As I was working, I kept hearing this weird rumbling sound, coming from my room. I put my pen down and tried to focus on where it was coming from.

I looked over to my jacket that I had thrown on one of the other chairs, and quickly got up thinking it was my mobile vibrating.

I quickly searched the pockets and pulled out my phone, and looked to the screen where it said an 'unknown caller' was trying to reach me. This was my personal phone, only family and a few friends had this number, anyone else usually called my work cell.

I pressed the green button and held it to my ear.

"Hello?"

"_Detective Cullen?"_

"Yes, I'm him, who is this?"

"_Are you alone detective?" _They asked, skipping the question, it sounded like a female caller.

"Yes I am, now who is this?"

"_I'll tell you who I am, but I need you to swear to me that what I tell you remains with you."_

"Who do you think you ar-"

"_Swear Detective!"_

"Fine, I promise! Now who are you?"

There was a pause on the line and then the woman answered, _"My name is Rosalie King, and I work for the Volturi…I want to make a deal with you."  
><em>

* * *

><p><strong>AN: For the Diamond Jubilee Celebrations, I have released another chapter to my great readers :) What did you think? Emmett's reaction, Rosalie's backstory, can any one guess what she is going to ask Edward? <strong>

**Big thanks to those who alerted/favourited and reviewed the last chapter, as always review this chapter and you get a special sneak peek of the next chap :D**

**On another note, did anyone watch the celebrations? Don't you think if England would win the Euros that would make one hell of a year for Britain, except we all know that's not going to happen :P I mean I hope Hodgson and the guys the best of luck, but I think this is probably the first time the fans aren't expecting anything big, does anybody agree?**

**Got an exam on the monday two weeks from now, with another exam the next day, so this is my heads up that my update may be a week or so later than planned.**

**Anyhooo, thanks again everyone :)**

**Jaimie x**


	18. Chapter 17

**Chapter 17**

**~~*~~  
>Edward's POV<br>~*~**

_There was a pause on the line and then the woman answered,_ _"My name is Rosalie, and I work for the Volturi…I want to make a deal with you."_

"Don't you think you've made enough deals already?" I shouted down the phone, "You've got some nerve calling me on this number."

"_Please Detective; it's a different kind of deal I want to make."_

"You're crazy if you think I'm making any more negotiations with you lot."

"_Can you please just hear me out? I was told that you would at least listen."_

I took a breath in, trying to calm my boiling anger, "Fine, what is it that you want?"

"_I don't want to be associated with the Volturi's work."_

"That's kind of strange when you just said you work for them."

"_It's complicated, it wasn't by choice Detective! When all this comes to an end, I don't want to be charged with anything, I'm not associatiated with the crimes the Volturi carried out, all I do here is tend to the wounded, that's all, I just want to make a deal so that I don't have to go to jail for crimes I didn't commit."_

"It doesn't matter if you've committed them Miss, the fact of the matter is that you're associated with one of the biggest crime families in the US."

"_It's Mrs, and just call me Rosalie. Look, there's a reason I gave you my bloody name, I'm trusting you right now not to go and tell it to all your detective buddies and go find me. The Volturi would never do anything like this, they're proud of they're work, they don't back out, I just want to be able to live a normal life again."_

"You've still got to tell me your end of the deal Rosalie."

"_I can promise you Bella will be safe."_

"As long as Bella is in the Volturi's hands, she will not be safe."

"_You need to hear this straight Detective, a lot of people here aren't happy with your work, and they wouldn't mind extracting their revenge on your wife, and believe it or not, I do have some authority in this place so I can help protect her, and by the time this deal has ended, I can return her to you free from harm. If you decline, well, I'll leave her for the wolves…"_

"If you want to help me Rosalie, why don't you just tell me where you are?"

"_I'm not that stupid Detective, plus, if I even uttered a single syllable I would be killed before I got to the next one, and if word got out that their location was compromised, they would just up and leave to another location, you'll be back at square one, and you'll be without me. Trust me Detective; you're going to want to keep me around."_

"Fine," I gave in, "but I'll need a bit more than her safety Rosalie; she could be dead in a few hours if this decision thing turns sour."

"_I can get you to speak with her."_

"What?" I managed to say, since the breath had suddenly caught in my throat from the unexpected offer she had just made.

"_All you have to do is give me a time of day, and a promise that no one outside the two of us finds out about these calls, and that you don't even bother trying to trace the calls, otherwise you won't be able to hear from your wife ever again…that's unless you agree to the first deal of course."_

I hesitated, considering my options.

"_Look Detective, I'm not one for making threats, but I was told that you would be able to do this for me?"_

"By who?" I asked interested, no one in the Volturi in their right mind would advise one of their own to speak to me to get a 'get out of jail free' card.

"_Bella. She was the one who told me to call you, said you could help me, it wasn't my own decision." _She paused as she let that point register in my mind properly, and then she spoke again,_ "I'll be calling you later to see what your decision is."_

"No, wait!" I shouted down the line before she hung up, and I listened carefully and was thankful I wasn't currently hearing the dialing tone, "It's a deal."

**~~*~~  
>Bella's POV<br>~*~**

Rosalie had left about two hours ago saying she would give what I said a try. I was just hoping Edward would have agreed, and not let his anger-fuelled state make his decisions and actually give Rosalie a chance.

After some time, I heard heels clicking in the corridor outside the room. She must have got a decision.

"I need to check her leg again." I heard her ask whoever was guarding my door.

"Again? I thought you already checked it?"

"I did, but since you decided to take it too far, I've got to make sure it's not broken."

"I didn't mean too! Jeez! I wish everybody would get off my back about that!" He said, as he unlocked the door, not looking at me but just letting Rosalie in.

As soon as the door shut, I sat up quickly on the bed.

"What did he say?" I asked her, a bit loudly, my excitement getting the better of me.

She quickly put her finger to her mouth and nodded her head in the direction of the door, telling me to keep it down.

"What did he say? Is he going to do it?" I asked again, keeping the tone of my voice controlled.

"Yes he's agreed, but I've laid some ground rules that you need to know about."

I just nodded, I didn't care that rules had been set. All I was focused on was the fact Edward had agreed to this. I didn't know what part I was happier for. The fact that I would be speaking to Edward soon, I knew there was so much I needed to tell him, to explain to him.

The other, was that he had actually agreed with Rosalie. I had actually just assumed he has given her what she had asked for, but I knew I had to here the rest of what she had to say.

"What are the rules then?"

"I'll be deciding when the call is going to take place, if he's not there at that time then he'll have to miss it. If for whatever reason I can't get you out or there isn't a suitable place to make the call then we'll have to miss it, understand?"

I nodded, it was fair enough.

"What else?"

"You cannot mention a single thing about this place. Not the names of people you've learnt, no description of the place, not even what time zone you think it is. If you mention a single letter the call will be cut off and you won't speak to him again. So to make sure you don't I'll be in the same room as you for the duration of the call, is that understood?"

I nodded again, except I was thinking about the fact I wasn't going to have any privacy when we spoke, and I'm sure Edward would want to use these calls to see if he could learn something about my location, but I guess now that's impossible.

"Right, I've got to go, Laurent is going to be calling soon to see if Edward has made his decision."

"Already?" I asked, with a deep realization that whatever they were negotiating, well it could in turn mean that something will happen to me as a result.

Rosalie nodded, "I know the timing of these calls for Edward was a bit unfortunate, but if it does go badly later, I promise I'll get you to speak with him tonight. If for whatever reason we decide to prolong the decision, then you know you definitely have the calls with him for the time you are here."

I just nodded my head again. Bit of a waste of time organizing these calls if I was going to die in a few hours. Either way, I still had to be grateful for what Rosalie was doing for me; she was risking her own life to make my time here slightly bearable.

"Thank you." I said to her as she was leaving the room, and she turned around and gave me a small smile before shutting the door behind her.

**~~*~~  
>Edward's POV<br>~*~**

6 o'clock was looming and you could feel the tension within the atmosphere in the room.

We didn't know which phone was going to ring, but we had pretty much everyone in the whole building to be ready in the interval of 17:59 and 18:01, I had basically asked everyone to stop what they were doing for those few minutes.

It was me who was going to have to speak to them however. I was the one who had to make the decision, and it had taken me all night to reach it.

I hadn't told anyone else, except Agent Weber of course, who I sort of had to tell anyway so the FBI could be prepared. But people like Jasper, Jacob, even Emmett I hadn't told. I knew I would be vulnerable and anything they said could sway me easily, and I didn't want that. It would be best if everyone else found out when the Volturi found out, and then I could explain my reasoning afterwards.

So by deciding not to tell them, meant I kept myself locked up in my office without anybody coming in, to reduce the possibility of someone asking or trying to persuade me to choose a certain option.

And I was trying not to think about what I had decided as well. I wanted to avoid any second thoughts, any doubt on what I had set my mind on.

It was 17:58.

I walked out of my office, leaving the door open, and out into the main room. It was eerily silent. People either had their eyes on me, or on the clock which was mounted on the wall.

I nodded a general hello to everyone and walked towards Jaspers and Jacob's desks, Emmett was leaning against Jasper's, glaring at me. He wasn't happy that I wasn't sharing my decision.

"You ready?" I heard Jasper ask, as I watched the second hand on the clock tick the final few seconds.

"I guess so." I answered, and waited with bated breath as soon as the clock turned six.

There was nothing for a couple of seconds. The room, probably the whole building was completely silent. It was so quiet, it seemed like you could hear the tiniest of sounds that were happening across the room.

Suddenly, a phone in the main room rang and my heart froze. This was it.

Everybody's eyes followed me as I walked to the phone, standing over it for a moment or two before telling myself to just pick up the phone and get it over with.

I pressed the record button that we had set up and was connected to most of the phones, and then picked up the phone.

"This is Detective Cullen."

"_Has your decision been made?" _The person asked; it was the same voice that had called the last time.

"Yes, it has…" I took a deep breath in and steadied myself for the possible reaction of the people around the room. Emmett was the one I was most afraid of, "…and we're not going to comply with you, the Volturi leaders are not going to be set free, no matter what the deal is."

I saw Emmett about to move forward towards me in reaction to my decision, his face was furious, but Jasper held him back.

"_You do know what the consequences of your actions will mean."_

"Of course I do," I said quietly, "my decision wasn't taken lightly."

There was a pause on the phone, and then he spoke again, _"Hmmm, I think we were a bit rash in how quickly we wanted a decision, how in the world could you have made all your preparations in the space of a day, you know what, I'm going to do something now Detective, that the Volturi never do."_

"And what's that? Are you going to release Bella?" I asked, a bit of hope in my voice.

There was a dark chuckle on the other end, _"No, of course not, what I was simply going to say, was that I was going to extend the amount of time you had to make this decision, and any necessary arrangements."_

"How long do I have?"

"_We're giving you a month; just before the trial we'll call you. And that will be all Edward, you won't be given any extra time, if you keep this same decision in a months time then we'll be sending you a photo of your dead wife minutes after you put the phone down, is that understood?_

"Completely." I responded.

"_Well then Detective, that's all I have to say, I'll be speaking to you in a month."_ And with that he put the phone down.

Emmett was the first to speak, "What the fuck Edward?" He shouted, "What the hell have you done?"

"I've bought us more time." I answered, my tone quite surprised.

Emmett was about to argue something else, but he stopped, "Wait, what?"

"They've given us an extra month to think this over, the Volturi are desperate, but it also means they'll be getting sloppy, so that means we have a month to find Bella and whoever is behind this threat. And I don't want anything done last minute either," I said, and I was talking to the whole room now, "I want this over and done with, we're not going to have to let the Volturi leaders free, if we can get those who are behind it before the deadline, then there'll be no bloodshed."

"But Edward, where are we going to start?"

I shrugged, "Anywhere, look at old case files or study the evidence from the most recent case…" as I said that, a thought popped into my mind, and I felt so stupid that I hadn't thought of it before, "…someone try and find the vehicle Bella was taken in, use the CCTV cameras in the area, trace it, follow it, try and get a license plate number, if we find that van, then we could find Bella."

I felt liking hitting myself that I hadn't thought of that before. We could have already been on the search for that car, have officers around the country on the lookout for the license plate.

"Edward?" Someone called, so I turned around and saw Jessica walk up to me. "Chief is organizing a meeting in about an hour to see where you stand and what the next steps will be, and has asked that if you feel there are others who should be present in the meeting, then bring them along too."

"Thanks Jess."

"You're welcome." She answered and then turned and walked away. That must have been the first conversation I had had with Jessica where she wasn't doing something flirtatious. Wonder if that tiny brain of hers had realized her advances weren't working on me. Either that or she was holding back considering the circumstances.

I walked back to where the others were standing. "Taylor's holding a meeting in an hour about the Volturi; I want you two to come." I said to Jasper and Jacob.

"And what about me?" Emmett asked, standing straight so he was at his full height and looking down at me.

"You're her family; I thought it would be obvious I needed you in there."

"Oh, good." He said back, relaxing to his normal stature.

"What's it about?" Jacob asked.

"Our next course of action. I'm assuming since the leaders where useless to us, we're going to find out what we do from here," I looked at Jasper, "I'd warn Alice that you might be a bit late home, I don't know how long this meeting will take."

"Alright then." He turned around and started to fish for his phone in his pocket.

"So remember you two, one hour, you know what Taylor's like."

"Why is he bad?" I heard Emmett mutter to Jacob as I turned around. Well I hoped he was on time.

******

We were sat in one of the board meeting rooms in the building. There was about ten of us in the room, either standing or sat around a long oval, wooden table, there was a projection screen at one end of the room and a normal television in the other.

Taylor wasn't sat at the head of the table like he usually did. Instead, sat in the leading seat, was who I assumed to be one of the higher figures of the FBI. Surprisingly he looked quite young, for a high FBI figure I mean. He was probably late thirties, like Jacob he had dark skin, and possibly had Native American roots. From the way he was sat, it looked like he missed the field action. Two bodyguards dressed in black suits stood against the wall behind him.

Taylor was sat to his left, whilst to his right sat another man, around the same age as Taylor but bigger in size, was to his right. Next to him was Angela Weber, the FBI agent who had been shadowing me and been kept up to date on important details in the case throughout my time in charge.

Then of course was Emmett, Jasper, Jacob and myself, sat in the other remaining chairs around the table facing them. Funnily enough the chairs next to Taylor were left empty.

Ben, the technician, was also in the room, sort of hovering by the door. I wasn't sure if he was waiting for someone to give him something or he just wasn't sure where to put himself. He had probably never been in a meeting of this importance.

"Right then," Taylor started, "everyone's here, I would like to firstly introduce you gentlemen to Sam Uley. He is representing the head of the FBI who unfortunately, due to another commitment couldn't make it this evening." Sam nodded his head to us all.

"And secondly I would like to introduce you to head of NSA, Mr. J Jenks. And of course you all know Agent Weber."

We all sort of nodded a hello to each other, apart from Angela who smiled to us.

"Great," Emmett said, "now the formalities are done, can we get to the important stuff on how to find my sister!"

"Emmett," I quietly cautioned him, it would do him no good if he got himself kicked out.

"And you are?" Jenks asked him.

"Emmett Swan, Chief of Police in Forks Washington, brother to the current victim."

"Wow, Forks…I've never even heard of the place?"

"Guys come on," I interrupted before this became an argument, "can we just get to the point?" Emmett, you can expect to get a bit riled up, but not from the Head of the NSA, you wouldn't think he would stoop to that level.

"Yes," Sam agreed, "Angela informed us of the decision you made about not agreeing with the Volturi terms, and we're glad you didn't, I know it must have been hard, but we can't let them back on the streets."

"We can't exactly let Bella die!" Emmett exclaimed.

"What Emmett means," I said, giving him another stern look, "is that although that is the better option, what are we going to do about the bigger threat?"

Emmett glared at me, I wasn't too sure now whether letting him in here was the best idea.

"Well the obvious way to sort it is eliminate them," Jenks stated, "if we can locate them before the deadline, then problem solved, the people behind it would be behind bars on death row, and to cover our asses we would increase security in major cities across the country."

"That's assuming we can locate them however." Jasper said.

"Sam," Taylor started, "is the FBI getting anywhere with locating them?"

"Unfortunately not," Sam answered, "so far all we have are old files; however I have currently assembled a team of some of our top agents, even our undercover ones, and sending them around the country, to see if they can catch even a whisper of the Volturi or their plans."

"And what will happen if, let's say, we don't locate them and our time is up?" Jacob asked.

"We can't exactly protect every major city in the country." Jasper added.

"Does the President even know what's happening?" I also asked. I hadn't thought of it before now, but with such a large threat, I wondered if the top man knew what was going on here in Chicago.

"I have been told that the President has been made aware of the potential threat," Jenks stated, "however so far all he knows is that its early stages and that there isn't much to worry about for now…" I saw Emmett get ready to fume, but I gently nudged him as an indicator not to say anything, "…but if things worsen and we have a national crisis, then I'm sure the President will send out some sort of message of warning."

"I think it would take a completely new meeting to deal with that problem," Sam said, "right now I believe we need to focus on what's happening at this moment, and for a start, I know for a fact that some of the other senior figures at the FBI are wondering if we can have a professional negotiator be in touch with the Volturi when they contact, rather than Detective Cullen?"

"I second that." Jenks added onto the end.

"No deal." Emmett said immediately after, "The Volturi have specifically asked Edward to be the one to make the decisions, and for him to be their point of contact. The whole point of taking Bella was to get at him, not at any of you, so as soon as you bring someone new in, you'll probably be giving them a reason to kick start things a little earlier than planned, and I doubt any of us want that."

"Then I propose at the very least some further negotiation training for Mr. Cullen," Sam said, "no doubt you already have some negotiating skill from some of your work in the field," he said speaking directly to me, "but with something so big, something that we can't afford to make mistakes on, we can't have someone who wasn't properly trained dealing with such high risk negotiations."

"I've been perfectly fine so far."

"Yes you have Detective, so far…but all it takes is some sudden, random action to occur and everything could turn upside down, let's not forget how emotionally involved you are with this, you could decide something that doesn't necessarily help the entire nation, simply because of how you were feeling."

He continued his conversation with Taylor about the pros of me having extra training and I sighed. Just what I needed on top of trying to find Bella, unnecessary lessons.

I sort of tuned out of Sam and Taylor's conversation about me, and as I did I happened to notice Ben stick his head out the door for a moment as though he was talking to someone. Whatever conversation he was having, it was kept short, and he walked back into the room with a disc now in his hand.

He walked straight to the television and immediately started to set something up.

"Is there something you want to tell us Ben?" Taylor asked, who must have also noticed Ben's sudden action, since he had been stood still in the corner of the room for the whole meeting.

"Forensics…" He started, whilst putting a disc into the DVD player, "…well the IT ones, just sent a copy of this disc to us to analyze, they decided to do what Detective Cullen asked by trying to follow the vehicle that must have been used to transport Miss Swan."

"And?"

"Well we think we've found the vehicle, based on Edwards account of the time he received the call from his house, they looked at all CCTV in that area and they think they've found it, so they've compiled a video and they just wanted to show you lot what they had got."

Taylor motioned for him to play the disc, so he stepped aside and switched the lights off so we could see a bit easily.

Unfortunately, it looked like no one in our street had some security cameras set up, as the first image was at a set of traffic lights on the main road from what I could recognize. It wasn't that far from my house, but it made the chance of this being just a normal car slightly bigger.

Eventually, a car entered the screen, and Ben pointed it out as the one they followed in the cameras. It was a black van. Without even considering other possibilities, I knew that was the van. It just screamed out that it was being used for gang activities and committing crimes.

I couldn't help but smile at the clarity of the image. I could see its license plate from here, and I'm sure if they edited with lighting, or the pixels, it wouldn't be too hard to get a look at the driver's face.

"So you got the registration I presume?" I asked.

"Oh yes, they're just running it through the database to make sure it's not a fake one, so once we get the all clear we'll be sending out a vehicle description and the license number to all on duty cops immediately."

I nodded my head to him. He's learnt quickly.

"Whoa hold on, pause the tape a sec." Jacob shouted randomly, almost out of his chair. Ben quickly paused it and then looked to him confused. "Right, now just rewind it a tiny bit."

"What is it Jacob?" I asked, studying the screen to see if there was something important that the others had missed.

"I'm not sure yet, I'm just checking something…right stop it there, and let it play."

We all watched the next few clips carefully; trying to see what had Jacob so on edge.

"Pause it again, did you all see it?" When he asked the question, he looked directly at me, and I knew exactly why.

There was a murmur of confused voices as the others in the room hadn't seen it, and in fairness, it wouldn't be that important to them, because I had saw what Jacob was trying to show, and it had me frozen in my seat.

Noticing that I had seen what it was, and my sudden reaction, Jasper asked me what it was, but I couldn't speak I was in shock.

"Look," Jacob said again, getting out of his seat and going to the television, and started to fiddle with the rewind and pause to get it on the exact moment, and when he did, it was still only a few of us in the room that got what it was.

"I don't understand Black." Taylor said to him, "What is it that we're looking for?"

Jasper looked at the screen and back to me, "Edward, isn't that your car?"

The screen was a freeze-frame of a road, the camera probably taken from a small convenience store or off-license, in one direction was the black van we were following, and in the other direction was a silver Volvo. My silver Volvo.

My memory took a quick leap back to the day Bella was kidnapped, and I remembered how empty the streets were, apart from a van that had went past me…

Bella had been just a few feet away from me at that moment.

I felt sick.

"Edward," Jasper said again, probably taking from my reaction that it was my car, "there was nothing you could have done, you didn't know."

"She was right there…"

"Edward," Emmett said now, and I was a little bit surprised by how he looked at me. For some strange reason, I expected another shouting or something from him, maybe a tiny hint of anger, but there was nothing, "there was nothing you could have done, do you hear me, it was just unfortunate that you drove past each other."

"Was it not speeding? And maybe you thought of pulling it over…" Jenks started to ask but Emmett shut him up with a glare.

"I'm going to go…" I stated, grabbing my jacket off the back of my chair.

"The meeting's not finished yet Cullen." Taylor said, but I heard Jasper say to him just before the door shut behind me, "I'll catch him up, just let him go."

**~~*~~  
>Bella's POV<br>~*~**

Was it good news or bad news that I would have to stay here for another month?

I guess I was favoring the pros of staying; the main one was that I would stay alive, and that hopefully it should give the police, or the FBI or whoever was dealing with this, time to find them, to find me.

Of course the major con was that I would be staying.

I'm not surprised Edward declined the deal they made, I'm glad he's not giving in to them. Whether that makes me a bit sad, I'm not sure. A small part of me was thinking that perhaps he does no longer care about me. I guess the stupid, tiny hopeless romantic in me imagined him saying yes and I got to home straight away.

I'd like to point out that I in no way believe I outweigh three major criminals and that the whole country's safety should be risked for my wellbeing. I guess I just thought of the past when Edward would pretty much glare at somebody who looked at me funny, or God forbid the way he acted if someone was trying to pull something funny with me. He was really keen about my safety. Sometimes it was annoying, sometimes it was cute.

I doubt I would be getting any sleep over the next month. Maybe I could ask Rosalie what time Royce went home; maybe I could catch a few hours sleep whilst he was gone. I doubt I could rest if I knew he was in the building. Unless he was weird and stayed here, then I guess I was not going to sleep well whilst here.

I heard heels clicking in the corridor and wondered whether it was Rosalie.

It hadn't been her who told me. The man guarding my door, who I presumed was still Felix (it unnerved me the fact my attacker was just outside the door as well), had notified me by banging on my door and exclaiming that I was here for the long haul.

"Argh, you again?"

"I wouldn't be so surprised to see me coming and going over the next few days, so you might as well get used to it, I mean you were…"

"Yes I know, it was my fault, blah blah, just go on in."

The door unlocked and Rosalie stepped inside, "Thanks Felix."

Once the door shut, Rosalie must have seen my defeated expression, "So you heard huh?"

I nodded my head.

"Well at least they have a month to sort things out." She said positively. I didn't know whether in her position she wanted their plan to fail or succeed.

She placed her briefcase next to me on the bed, "I'm just going to check your leg again, if that's ok, just to see if the swelling has gone up or down."

She bent down by my feet and I tried to lift my leg a bit to help her.

"Bella, could I ask you something?" She said as she started to unwrap the bandage, "It's a bit personal though."

"Er, yeah, sure, you did tell me something about you." I said, more distracted by my purple looking foot than what came next.

"What exactly happened the day your son was taken?"

_Well I wasn't expecting that one._

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Soo what do you think? Rosalie wants to be cleared, Edward said no to the Volturi, and next chapter we finally find out what exactly happened to Mason... Hope you liked it, thanks for reading it and for those who alertedfavourited. Please review and let me know your thoughts, sneak previews as usual :)**

**On a different note...EXAMS ARE OVER! My summer has now started, and I won't get the results come August, and hopefully, I'll get into Uni :) Just a question for anyone reading this from the UK, who are doing A-levels, if anyone took Chem 5 (AQA) what did you think of the paper? I think AQA definitley need to review it, it was shocking. **

**Anyways, now i have the summer to focus on this story, and updates should be regular, apart from the fact in 2 weeks time I'm on my post A-levels holiday in Tenerife with the girls so it'll be slightly delayed.**

**Thanks again everyone, hope you enjoyed it :)**

**Jaimie x**


	19. Chapter 18

**Chapter 18**

**~~*~~  
>Bella's POV<br>~*~**

"Is it alright, if I asked you about it? About what happened that night?" Rosalie asked tentatively, as if she was treading on egg shells with where this was going. In fairness, she was for me; it was a hard subject for me to even think about.

"I'm not sure…I haven't talked about it for such a long time…"

"I understand if you can't," she added quickly, "I was just wondering, I actually remember it being on the news here, I can't imagine how bad it must have been for you…"

"It wasn't bad…" I said, "…it was no where near bad, it was worse, so much worse. So unbearably painful that I didn't think I would be able to move on at all."

Rosalie looked pitiful, "Truly Bella, you don't have to talk about it if it's going to hurt you." She said softly.

"No," I shook my head, "it might do me some good."

"As long as you're sure?" She asked again.

"I'm sure." I affirmed. I was grateful Rosalie was being careful about my feelings rather than some nosy cow who would want to hear a story to entertain her for a few minutes. Plus, I sort of trusted her. I think she was being genuinley interested rather than trying to get some info for the Volturi.

Steadying myself mentally so I wouldn't be overwhelmed all at once, I began to tell Rosalie my story.

It could have been a normal day for anyone else, but today had to be different for Edward and I. It was a usual thing to pick Mason up from morning play-school and then in the afternoon walk down to the nearby park where he could play in the children's playground.

I remember the sun shining down, with a warm air to wear a t-shirt, but a cool enough breeze to stop us getting too hot. I could still see Edward lathering on sun-cream onto Mason, and then persuading me to have some on with how pale I was. I just joked that my skin was that white that it would just reflect the suns rays and I would be fine.

Many other families must have had the same idea to take advantage of the lovely weather and take their children to the park, as the playground was packed with laughing kids, running around with what seemed to be an infinite amount of energy.

Edward and I were sitting on a bench just outside the playground far enough that little kids weren't running around us, but close enough so I could keep a clear eye on Mason at all times. It wasn't that hard to spot his unique reddy-brown mop of hair that he had inherited from his dad.

"Bella, just relax, we come here almost everyday and you act exactly the same."

I sighed and relaxed into the bench a tiny bit. "It's not my fault, you don't know what can be out there nowadays, preying on little boys, you saw that story in the news the other week," I said and Edward sighed, "I just don't want to take my eyes off of him, just incase. I mean look at that man over there." I said to Edward as he turned to look at a relatively old man with sunglasses on and a long coat. "Doesn't he look a bit shady to you?"

Edward laughed, "That's Mr. Gibson from down the street, he comes here to walk his Yorkies."

"Oh, well, I couldn't tell from the glasses, and I couldn't see his dogs." I said, watching the two little dogs quickly bounce back to him. "But you know what I mean, you can't trust people nowadays."

"I understand, and as a cop it's surprising that you're not the one telling me to relax, but if you're this bad now with the protectiveness..."

"Hey!" I complained to him but he just smiled.

"...what are you going to do when he's fifteen and he wants to go out with girls?"

"I've already told you my plan; I'm going to make him love me so much that he won't want any other woman in his life." Edward just looked at me and raised his eyebrow. "Fine, I might be protective now, but you can't deny I have decent reasons." I told him whilst looking back to the playground to try spot Mason.  
>"I'm not saying they aren't."<p>

"Good." I said, but I couldn't spot that messy mop of hair. "Where is he?" I asked, but before I could worry, Edward answered without even turning to look.

"He's on the swings."

I looked over to the swings and there he was, trying to climb into the special seats that they have for babies or toddlers.  
>I turned back to Edward who was smiling at me smugly. Instead of a smart remark back, I nudged him and said, "Go help your son."<p>

"He doesn't want me." He said, nodding over to the swings were Mason was jumping up and down and shouting 'Mummy!'

I stood up and started walking to the enclosure, but I turned around to shout something back to Edward. "See, my plan's working, he already prefers me." I joked, and he smirked at me, but he suddenly shouted "Bella watch out!"

Before I could react to what he was shouting at, something collided into me from the side and I fell over.  
>Edward couldn't stop laughing at me. I mouthed 'Shut up' to him as I tried to see what or whom I had collided with. It was then I saw a little girl not too far away from me, no older than 6 years old, with ginger hair, a pink helmet, pink arm and knee pads, and a pink bike with little tassels out the side of the handlebars and a smaller seat with a doll strapped in.<p>

She was holding her knee and looked like she was on the verge of crying.

I turned back to Edward again, 'Stop laughing, she's hurt herself.' which made him calm down a bit, and then made my way over to the little girl.

"Hey, you okay?" I asked, a woman was coming up to us then and with the red hair, I assumed it was her mother.  
>"I'm so sorry," I apologised to her mum who knelt down beside the little girl, "I should've been watching where I was going."<p>

"Oh don't worry about it, I warned her that it was too early to take off the stabilisers, and that she should have been aware of other people. Isn't that right Abbie?"

Little Abbie just nodded her head a bit, but she still had hold of her leg and looked like she was about to cry.  
>"I think she may have grazed her leg." I mentioned.<p>

"Is everything alright Bella?" I heard Edward say in his 'protective-don't mess with me' voice as he stood besides me, I assumed because he thought the woman was probably telling me off because I hurt her little girl. A man, I could understand this, but with a woman, I can fend off my own battles.

"Yeah it's fine; she may have just grazed her leg."

"Well I can check it if you want." He offered.

"Are you a doctor?"

"No, but I'm a qualified first aider so I can check if it has anything in it."

"That's great, I have a mini-kit in my purse, let me just grab it. I'll be right back sweetie." She said to the little girl.  
>I looked at him amused, "You show off, 'I'm a qualified first aider'" I imitated his voice, "you know there are plenty of mothers who could do this themselves."<p>

"I know, but I couldn't be sure with the amount of damage you've likely done to the little girl with that bum of yours."

I hit him lightly on the arm but he just laughed at me.

"Are you a Doctor?" A small little voice said, along with a sniffle.

Edward turned to the little girl, "No I'm not. I'm a police officer."

"That's too bad, 'cos I needed someone to check if Rosie is ok."

"Is that your dolly?" I asked, seeing as Edward hadn't seen the doll on the seat.

She nodded her head again.

"I can check if you'd like," Edward said, "would you like that?"

"Yes please."

Edward unstrapped the doll, and whilst he was 'looking over' it, Abbie said, "You arrest people right?"

"Yes I do, I put all the bad people away in jail."

She motioned for him to lean closer to her, so he did, but her whispering wasn't perfect as I heard everything.  
>"Are you going to arrest her for knocking me over?" Edward had to cover his mouth to stop from laughing.<br>"Mummy!" I heard Mason shout impatiently.

"I'll be right over now sweetie, won't be long." I called over my shoulder, and then tried to focus on the conversation in front of me.

"I can arrest her if you want, would you like me to arrest the bad lady?" He said to the little girl going along with it.

She nodded and Edward turned to me but I just playfully glared at him.

"I'll go help Mason." I told him as I turned around to go into the playground.

"I'll get her later." I heard Edward say as I walked to the gate to the playground. I laughed to myself as I walked in and was about to go to the swings when I got confused because Mason wasn't standing there for help. He wasn't sitting on them either.

He probably got bored of waiting for me and went on something else, so I looked over to the slide to make sure, but I couldn't see him there.

I looked to the little round-a-bout they had and he wasn't there either.

I scanned each part of that playground, from the see-saw to the little sandpit, but I couldn't see him.

Had he got out? I turned and looked frantically around the area of the small playground to see if he had got out. It was only a minute or two ago when I had heard him at the swings, he couldn't have gotten far; surely one of the other parents would have been kind enough to mention something if he had wandered off alone.

But I could see no bronze hair. I couldn't see him at all.

"Edward!" I shouted. He had been laughing with the little girl's mother, and when he heard me, heard the tone of my voice, his head shot up and worry covered his face. He immediately got up, dropping the plasters and other stuff on the floor, and ran to the fencing around the playground.

"What's the matter?" He asked concerned.

"Mason, I can't find him."

"What do you mean, he's…" Edward looked past me, to what I assumed was the swings, and then I watched the expression on his face as he started to look around the park. I desperately wanted him to just tell me he was somewhere, in a really obvious position, and I would be given some sort of funny remark from Edward.

But he couldn't see him either, and I just watched his face as he started to look more worried.

.

I stopped talking to Rosalie and took a breath, trying to compose myself. I hadn't talked about this in over 5 years.

I wiped a tear that had fallen onto my cheek. "We started calling his name, running around opposite ends of the park and meeting in the middle so we wouldn't miss anything out. The woman, Abbie's mum, she helped search as well. We asked every passer-by if they had seen him, giving the most accurate description as possible to help them remember.

"Most of the people we asked hadn't seen him, and those that did only remembered seeing him in the playground. An hour or so had passed, and our theory of him wandering off out of curiosity seemed to slowly move further away, because normally a kid that age would wander right back.

"It started to get dark, Edward had called the police and they had arrived at the park, and they took a report and wrote down our accounts, and then Mason's description before leaving."

I shook my head; it still got to me how they weren't searching immediately. I still remembered Edward fuming at the two cops who had turned up, saying how the first few hours were crucial.

"It was lucky Edward was an officer otherwise I don't know how long we would have had to wait for those lazy cops to actually get off their ass and do something. He decided to go back to the station, and he told me to go home, but I couldn't, I couldn't leave the park incase Mason came back, I couldn't risk leaving and then he comes back.

Edward had been reluctant to let me stay behind, but I was stubborn, and I didn't care how late I stayed in that park, Mason could be lost and scared, and wanting his mummy and daddy.

I stayed in that park all night, sitting in the bench opposite the playground that Edward and I had been sitting in earlier that day. I wasn't bothered that it was cold; I wasn't tired at all, I wasn't afraid of the gang of lads who loitered around the park at night, nor was I afraid of what they could have done to me.

And then I got a call from Edward, he was upset, I could hear it from the tone of his voice and immediately I thought the worse had happened, that he had wandered into the road and got hit by a car, something like that, but instead what he told me made me almost collapse right there in the park.

Apparently someone who was at the park came to the station to give some information, saying she thought she saw something suspicious. She didn't think anything of it at first, but when police started speaking to people in the park about whether they had seen a little boy, she knew it was serious." I took another unsteady breath in, "She had seen a young boy shouting for his mum, when a man came up to the fence around the playground and started speaking to him. The little boy walked up to the man without a care in the world, and then the man leant over the railing, picked him up and then walked off." My voice broke and my hand covered my face as the tears started to fall. I stopped talking as I tried to control my emotions.

"You don't have to continue." Rosalie said softly, but I shook my head.

"No, it's been a while since I've talked about this; this is the hardest part that's all." I waited a few more moments, controlling my staggered breathing, and then when I thought I was ready, I continued.

"The woman had thought the man was the young boy's father, assuming that he had went over instead of his mum, and since he walked over to him she didn't think there was anything wrong. Although, she did say to the police that when he was picked up, the child shouted 'mummy' again, but just thought it was a small protest of not wanting his dad.

"She had heard a few moments later, just as she was leaving, that a young woman with brown hair, well, me, was asking people if they had seen her son, giving them a brief description of what he was wearing. To the woman, the child's description sounded familiar, but she had left before I could speak to her.

"It was only when she was in her car leaving the park that she had seen Edward talking to the police with me, and then she realized he was the father, but her mind hadn't put the pieces together until she was at home, and then as soon as she realized she went straight to the station.

"I can't be mad at the woman for realizing late on, even though the park was packed, she was pretty much the only witness who had seen him being snatched. The poor woman couldn't stop apologizing to us, asking us for forgiveness that she didn't do something about it, but what she didn't realise is that she _had_ done everything she could have, and without her, we wouldn't have known what happened to Mason in the first place.

"We ended up in the station till all hours of the morning. We pretty much done everything we could for the first few hours. We put Mason's description into the FBI's National Crime Information center, we notified the state border controls, we got his description out to every on duty police officer that was working that night. Next thing we know, we're asked to give our story to the local press, and news stations to help widen the search." I had thought at the time we were lucky to get time on TV, and it was only because Edward worked with the people in the station, they were more willing and determined to find him.

"After that, all we could do was wait. Well, Edward was forced to work, and word about Mason's disappearance had spread fast, that my boss pretty much ordered me to stay off work. But even though I appreciated it, being in the house alone was doing no good. I wouldn't go outside. I would sit on the sofa, and watch the phone for something to happen.

"Occasionally my best friend came over as often as she could, since Edward was at work, and once my older brother found out, he came all the way down from Washington State to stay with me for a few weeks.

"I would hear children laughing and playing in the streets, and this unbearable ache would appear in my heart. At breakfast and dinner time, his lack of presence was more noticeable. I would stand by the door waiting for Edward to come in with some good news, but he would always enter with the same look of defeat and sadness that I'm sure I had.

"Of course we had both support and stick. The stick was from older parents, talking about the fact we were young parents in comparison to them, and that we should have never took our eyes from him at all.  
>I didn't need those people to tell me that, I knew that myself, it was one of the thoughts that would haunt me every night, I would beat myself up emotionally over it wondering what would have happened if I decided to go straight to him when he first called 'mummy', or if I was watching where I was going, perhaps I could have avoided colliding with that little girl, and all that bad press just added more fuel to the fire of bad thoughts I was having about myself.<p>

But the support was far greater. For the next couple of weeks, it seemed like the whole of the state was with us in trying to find Mason, but you know how things go, something else happens, another child is taken from somewhere else, or a new murder case is in the spotlight, and as the weeks went by, our story started to fade from the news channels, fade from the papers. I think if you asked anybody in Chicago about who Mason Cullen was, they would know, but to them it's just a story now, nothing's being done about it."

"I'm so sorry Bella." Rosalie said, I think it was all she could say, and then she surprised me and gave me a comforting hug. For me, it was just the right response to stop me from falling apart altogether.

"You know what kills me the most," I said into her shoulder, still being hugged, "is that when he was taken, he shouted 'mummy', and it wasn't the fact that he was shouting for me rather than Edward that hurts me, but rather I had _heard_ him calling for me, and I just thought he was being impatient. I had heard him as he was taken Rosalie."

I couldn't help it then, the emotions I was trying to hold back spilled over in the form of endless tears and sobs. Rosalie just tightened her hug and rubbed her hand up and down my back.

This fact was what started the arguments between Edward and I. When we started getting nowhere with the police, we started to turn on each other, trying to find an outlet, to try and put the blame on someone, and unfortunately, we started to blame each other.

"You can't blame yourself for this Bella," she said, "and I know you'll probably ignore what I'm saying to you, but you couldn't have known what was happening at that moment, I'm probably one in a long list of people who have already told you this but you have to know that it wasn't your fault."

I just nodded my head against her shoulder, and she seemed to accept it as an answer. Of course what Rosalie said wasn't going to miraculously change my mind. I knew it was going to take even more time for me to accept the thought, but when I even consider it, I can't help but blame myself.

I pulled away from the hug, still sniveling, but I had gotten the most of it out. Rosalie offered me a tissue from her bag.

"Thank you for that Bella, I know that must have been hard for you, I appreciate you telling me."

"I think you're the first person I've told that story to outside of the police in over 5 years. If it had been a few years earlier I wouldn't have mentioned a single word to a stranger, I guess time is starting to heal some wounds."

Rosalie smiled at me, more sympathetic than anything else.

"I know leaving you here alone now is probably not the best idea, but if I stay any longer, the others will suspect something."

"I know." I said. I was just hoping I could manage being alone, or even sleeping after unearthing those memories. "What time will you be calling Edward tomorrow?" I asked just as she got to the door. I couldn't help it, but since she had said he had accepted, I couldn't wait for that call.

"It'll be around lunchtime, that way most of the guards will be eating so we should be alright."

I nodded, and decided to curl up into the bed as Rosalie left, a mixture of feelings. Unfortunately, the majority of them were all centered around what I had just told Rosalie, but mixed in there was a few of excitement for this call with Edward.

I tried to focus on those thoughts as I tried to get to sleep; otherwise I knew I wouldn't be able to get any sleep at all. 

* * *

><p><strong>AN: ...so what did you think? I know it's a very important chapter explaining what happened to Mason so I hope I got it right. Please let me know what you thought, I really appreciate feedback :) Review and as usual you get a sneak peek of chapter 19 :) <strong>

** Sorry its slightly delayed again, I tried to get it out yesterday but was out at a party so forgot. But I'm back from Tenerife :) Best holiday of my life and had a great time with my friends :) silly me badly burnt the back of my legs on the last day whilst surfing, ended up not being able to move from my bed for 3 days :S worth it though :P**

**Thanks again**

**Jaimie x**


	20. Chapter 19

**Chapter 19**

**~~*~~  
>Edward's POV<br>~*~**

I still hadn't let it go.

Last night I had only just managed to get myself back to my hotel room. I had barely done any work as my mind kept drifting to the fact I had drove past Bella's kidnapper.

Everyone kept telling me there was nothing I could have done, how could I have ever known it was Bella in that van. But still, the thought plagued me.

All I could do was hope that they found that van. It was the only thing that got me through the hours at work, let me sleep imagining the van being found, the Volturi being captured and Bella being rescued, safe and sound.

But it was all wishful thinking, as I knew finding that van was only one small step in finding her.

Before I had gone home Jasper had come in to let me know what happened at the end of the meeting.

They dropped the conversation about me driving past the van. They thought Jenks would be a problem but he must have kept quiet being afraid of Emmett.

An agreement was made final over my extra 'lessons' on negotiating. I wasn't too happy to hear about it but there wasn't much I could do.

They then tried to find appropriate courses of actions for different scenarios, if certain situations played out, but clashes of opinions around the table pretty much meant that idea went nowhere, which is a huge step backwards in the opposite direction as with an impulsive group like the Volturi, we need to be prepared.

The final topic was whether or not to bring this out into the public. Jenks and Sam Uley, the FBI stand-in, thought it would be beneficial if the country knew about the situation. How they could help by providing information and possibly make the search for Bella and the gang quicker.

I wish I had been in there for that moment. From my own personal experience, the public's help isn't always the best. Too many times had the public got our hopes up with possible 'sightings' of Mason, even though it went nowhere. Bella and I just reached a point when we pretty much ignored what was happening on that side of finding Mason.

Taylor was almost on board of the public being informed, but Jasper, Jacob, Emmett and even Agent Weber, argued that it could just send the nation into a panic. They wouldn't be seen as gang members but terrorists who were threatening a nationwide execution of innocent people. Plus they believed an enormous amount of pressure would be added to me bearing in mind the whole country, maybe even globally, they would be watching, and counting on my decision. It goes well I'm a hero, goes badly then I've just caused terrorism, and well, I'm sure I'd be killed off by an angry citizen.

They agreed that for the country's best interests, we'd keep quiet on the situation, and then when the time was right, have the President make a private address to the media, and ask the public to stay indoors and avoid major public areas like malls etc. This was only if we failed here.

And right now, with no leads, that was looking like what will be happening. It had barely been a week and I already felt Bella was starting to slip away from me. It didn't help that pretty much everyone else in the police department weren't thinking about her. That she isn't important to them and that there is a more important matter at hand. Even if that may be true, she doesn't deserve to be left and forgotten by everyone because we had nothing left to go on. I didn't want everyone to simply be counting down to that inevitable day. If that happened, I would have let her down so much.

I didn't want it to be left to that final day. I wanted this over and done with as quickly as possible. Who knows what they're doing to Bella, whether they are simply starving her or worse, possibly even torturing her. I couldn't keep her there for another three weeks.

I felt helpless because there wasn't something I could do personally. Forensics was dealing with the evidence, the FBI had their database to look at, and I knew in the eyes of Taylor and Jenks, I was just their link to the Volturi. I didn't just feel helpless, I felt useless.

I picked up the phone on my desk and dialled my Uncle. I didn't care that it was office hours; I just needed someone outside of this mess to talk to.

I checked the time on my clock and done a quick calculation to make sure I wasn't going to miss them. It was almost 9am over there but the hospital is pretty lenient on the morning hours Carlisle can work in.

"_Hello?"_ Esme answered the phone.

"Hi Esme, its Edward."

"_Edward it's great to hear you, how are you dear?" _She asked and I knew she didn't mean my feelings in general.

Of course Carlisle would have told her. I didn't think he would keep it from her. Bella was like the daughter she desperately craved. She wasn't seen as a daughter-in-law in Esme's eyes, she accepted her as family the day I brought her home to meet them.

"I'm coping." I answered simply. I wouldn't have said how it slowly killed me at the end of each day when we would remain with nothing, Esme would worry too much.

"_Have you seen Emmett? He shot off to Chicago immediately after Carlisle called him."_

"Oh yeah," I laughed to myself, "I've seen Emmett."

"_Oh no, what did he do to you?"_

"Don't worry Esme; he just wanted to let me know how angry he was at me." The bruise that had formed on my face was a clear indication of that. "He's helping us at the station. Is Carlisle in?"

"_No sorry hun, he left for work literally just before you called. Was it something important?"_

"Oh no don't worry, everything's fine, I was just calling to check up on things, say hi and all that." A partial lie; I was calling to say hello, but I really felt like I could use Carlisle's guidance.

Esme was saying something back to me, but I was too busy focusing on Jasper, Emmett and Jacob, almost jogging to my office door, all looking like they had something important to tell me.

The door opened in a rush as Jasper burst in, I could see Jacob and Emmett standing just behind him; Emmett was almost bouncing on the spot.

"They've found the van." Jasper told me, before rushing out the door again.

"I'm sorry Esme, I've got to go." I quickly told her, putting the phone down before she even had a chance to say goodbye, and I was up and out of my seat and out of the office before the door had even shut behind me.

I quickly caught up with them as they moved through the corridors, probably towards where we had a link with forensics. "What do we know?"

"Not even sure, they couldn't get through to you because you were on the phone so they called me to say they got a location and that we should come down. They didn't say much more."

I didn't care that they didn't say much more on the phone, they had found the van. Wherever that van was, meant that Bella wasn't too far away. This could be the big break we needed, we wouldn't have to worry about sorting things out over the next month; we could sort this out now and have no casualties.

A great surge of hope built up inside me as I thought about what this find would mean. I almost broke out into a smile as I entered the room Jasper had led me to, but all wasn't well.

My optimism soon dropped as soon as I saw the face of Angela. She must have got here just before we did, but the look on her face wasn't one I was hoping for.

She noticed my now defeated face, even though I didn't know what the news even was, and came towards me, probably to inform me about what happened.

"Was it the right van?" I asked, thinking that was the main problem.

"Oh, yes it's the right van alright…"

"But?"

"Whoever must have been driving the van must have known it was going to be tracked." I gave her a look that told her to explain more, "The fire brigade notified the police of a burning van in the middle of a field, not too far from highway 90. The police and a few CSI turned up to make sure it wasn't anything more serious, and managed to find a charred license plate, which they ran through the database and managed to match it with our missing vehicle."

"So they torched it." Emmett asked disappointed; well disappointed was too light hearted, more like devastated. I think he was counting on this lead as much as me.

Angela nodded, "Unfortunately, yes. We can only assume they swapped vehicles, and as a precaution burned any possible evidence."

I sighed, "Where about was it found?"

Angela pulled out a map, and grabbed a small piece of paper with the location of the van on, placing it on a nearby table as we followed her and looked over her shoulder as she traced her finger along the route, starting from Chicago.

"How many states does it go through?" Emmett asked concerned, watching her hand pass through 3 states already.

"Thirteen altogether." Emmett's eyes widened slightly, "But with where the van was found we're predicting just a maximum of seven possible states." Emmett visibly gulped, "Here it is," She moved out of our way so we could see the map clearly, but kept her finger on a point on the map, in the state of Montana

"And where does highway 90 end at?"

"Let's see…" She said checking the map, "Washington State, but with the location of the van, there is every possibility that when they got picked up, they changed route and are heading somewhere completely different."

"But you've got to take into account the timeline as well."

"What do you mean?"

"From the moment Bella was taken to the moment I got that first call, how long was that? Just over a day?"

Everyone nodded their head.

"So we've got to assume they never detoured majorly, and they mustn't have strayed too far off the interstate otherwise the timing just wouldn't add up."

"So what are you thinking?"

"Well what was the time the fire brigade got that call to deal with the van?"

"Err we're not sure, we can find out though." Ben said, turning around in his chair and typing something on the computer.

"If we take the difference between the time they got the emergency call, and the time the Volturi first called me, isn't there some sort of calculation you can do to see what the boundary is where they travelled?"

"It sounds all well and good saying it like that, but there are various factors we have to take into account, whether there was traffic on the roads, the speed they were going, the toll roads, even if they had enough petrol in the tank, and this is still assuming they stayed on the interstate." Another guy commented, Mike, I think his name was, helped us a lot in the research stuff, another brainiac guy.

"So what are you saying?" Emmett asked.

"I'm saying doing this sort of thing would be impractical. Even if we managed to calculate an average, a boundary as he called it which would show the distance they travelled, it would take months to try each route and find possible locations on where they were hiding, and as we all know, we don't have that time."

"Well don't we have some sort of resource bank that showed possible Volturi hideout locations, and match that with routes within the boundary?"

"The FBI may have something," Angela said, "but chances are we may end up back at this point, with nothing."

"Well can you please just, give it a try; you never know something might come up."

Angela nodded, and turned away from us taking her phone out of her pocket to make a call.

"And what happens if they are somewhere completely new, somewhere that isn't on our radar?" Mike asked, his pessimism was getting on my nerves.

But I remained silent, without an answer, as if the Volturi have created a new base, we would definitely be screwed. The FBI's database of Volturi locations had been compiled over years, possibly even decades of work. To find a suspected new location took weeks of work, weeks that we don't have.

If we were to close this thing early we would need to know where they were, take advantage of the element of surprise. It would be risky attacking them on their home turf, with possibly a large amount of Volturi there, but if we were prepared and had a good strategy, we could easily pull it off.

I was suddenly tempted by the opportunity I had been given. Given by one of the Volturi members themselves.

Rosalie was due to contact me sometime today, for the phonecall with Bella. I had been told I couldn't trace the call, but how could she possibly know. I'm not aware of a piece of technology that would tell you your call was being traced, all I knew was that you could somehow prevent it.

Would I be able to do it? I'd need to ask someone for the equipment, and that itself would raise an eyebrow or two, and if I did tell at least one person, if word got out and spread to someone like Taylor, I would be a dead man. As well as risking the remaining time of speaking with Bella, I could lose my part in this case, maybe even my job.

The best I could do was just question Bella. I didn't want to interrogate her straight away on the first call. She's probably terrified and I've got to do my best to provide some comfort on the phone.

I'd have to think of a way to ask her though, especially if Rosalie is listening in to at least her part of the conversation, major details can't be given, but too many yes/no answers and she'll suspect something.

Strangely as I was thinking this, my phone vibrated in my pocket, so I pulled it out to see I had a text message from an unknown, blocked number. Was this Rosalie?

I opened the message but kept my phone close to me so any nosy peekers wouldn't see what it was.

_7.30_

That's all the message said.

I glanced down at my watch to see it was almost lunchtime. Even with the knowledge of them being as far as Washington State, I doubted they meant it for the morning, which left this evening for the call. I'd be clocking off at around 6 o'clock which meant I'd be in my hotel room with no one to interrupt or question me.

I don't know why, bearing the circumstances, but I was slightly excited to speak to Bella. Maybe it was more to know properly, for myself, that she was fine.

I deleted the text message and put the phone back into my pocket, no one noticing my little distraction. 7.30 couldn't come quick enough.

**~~*~~  
>Bella's POV<br>~*~**

I probably managed an hour or two of sleep than night. After calming myself down so I could actually fall asleep, I thought maybe I had broken some sort of weird barrier in my mind that would let me talk about Mason without it affecting my sleep.

However my hope was short lived as it wasn't long before the first nightmare hit, and I was jolted awake. For the first time I was alone when I had my nightmare. There were no arms to wrap around me for comfort, no soothing voice to sing some sort of soft lullaby to help me get back to sleep; Edward wasn't here to help me, and I had to try and calm myself down, to a state where I could attempt to go back asleep, but without Edward by my side it took far longer than usual.

And then this cycle would repeat. Over and over again, until I must have accumulated a total of two hours sleep, maybe a borderline three, until I reached a point when I didn't even bother trying to go back asleep. I just sat upright on my bed and stared at the wall, waiting until I had some sort of idea of the time, so I could have something to look forward to.

I doubted I had slept through their breakfast schedule; their schedule being one guard comes to the one outside my door, saying they have brought in something for them for breakfast and their shifts can change. I hadn't heard that yet, unless there was some unspoken agreement that I happened to miss.

I presumed Rosalie would take me out of the room during one of these changeovers, or, just do the whole she needs to go to the bathroom thing.

I didn't care which option she chose, as long as it got me to speak with Edward safely, which was all that mattered to me.

However, the day just happened to drag on. Their lunch break passed, even some of them had gone home for the evening, and I was starting to worry if Rosalie would manage to get this call in tonight.

After what felt like forever, I heard the unmistakeable sound of heels clicking on the floor outside. Please let this be Rosalie…

"Laurent sent me to take her for her shower break." Thankfully it was Rosalie's voice.

"She gets showers? Can't we just wash her down with a bucket of water?"

"It's not my decision Alec, bring it up with Laurent."

"Don't worry, I will. How long do you reckon you'll be?"

"Over half an hour perhaps, relax, have a break."

There was a rustling of keys, and then the door opened. I wanted to just jump up in eagerness, but I stayed rooted on the bed until Rosalie told me what to do. Didn't want to give the game away with over-eagerness.

"Alec, when I put this blindfold on her you'll have to help me take her to the bathroom."

I heard Alec groan, "Why did Felix have to mess up her leg?" He entered the room behind Rosalie, as she pulled a piece of black cloth from her pocket. She wrapped it tightly around my eyes so I couldn't see a thing, and then I felt what must have been Alec's hands on my arm helping me up.

His grip on me was tight the whole way to the bathroom. I didn't know if he was doing it on purpose, but I was sure to have some sort of bruise forming on my arm. He didn't help much as a support either, still had to limp heavily and quickly by the pace he was forcing me to go.

"I don't have to go in with you do I?"

I heard Rosalie sigh, "No, now go have your break, I can take it from here."

My arm was released from Alec's grip, and I waited till I heard his footsteps go away from me before I rubbed my arm. A shooting pain was returning to my ankle.

"Come on." Rosalie said, lightly guiding me inside the bathroom, and then I waited till she took the blindfold off of me.

It was more like a changing room area than a bathroom. But it wasn't a nice clean area, it must barely be used. The floor looked grubby and there was a slight smell of damp.

"Here," Rosalie passed me a towel and fortunately a clean pair of clothes that resembled the ones I was already wearing, and underwear. I was a bit wary of the underwear, but apart from that, wow, I was being treated, "go into the cubicle, throw your dirty clothes over the door, I'll have them washed. Don't worry about the new stuff, it's all brand new. Normally the others wouldn't do this but still, a month in one set of clothing…" she shivered, "I tried to at least partially match the style of the top and the colour, you could probably tell the difference if someone sat there and scrutinized you, but the airheads won't notice a thing."

"Thank you." I said sincerely.

She gave me a smile, "Well go on, we don't have a lot of time."

I turned around and walked to the cubicle, dreading what the state of the shower inside would be like, when I paused. Was I not going to call Edward today? Was it really going to be just a shower? But I swore she said she was going to get us to talk tonight?

"Oh and Bella…"

I turned around and smiled. Rosalie had her arm extended, and in the palm of her hand was a mobile.

"Dial in his number and press call. I did think going in the shower would be better, masking the sound with the water, but instead go in one of the toilets. That way if someone comes in you can dispose of it easily, obviously not by flushing it. You have just over 10 minutes, and then you hang up. Okay? I'm sort of giving you privacy, but if I hear anything dodgy I'll break down that toilet door and you won't speak with him again, is that clear?"

"Completely." I answered, my eyes fixated on the phone.

"Now go, you have 10 minutes."

I grabbed the phone from Rosalie's hand, and was dialling Edward's number, and pressed the call button before I had entered the stall. I shut and locked the door behind me, and looked down to a relatively decent toilet. I put the lid down and sat on it, listening as the phone rang.

My leg started to bounce on the spot as I nervously waited. Five rings…Six rings…

_Don't let him back out now._ I prayed. _Don't leave me like this._

Eight rings had gone, soon it would be going to his voicemail, and I knew I wouldn't have another chance. Rosalie said if he never picked up he missed his chance and he would have to wait till the next one.

Just as I was about to sink my head down in defeat, and sadness he wasn't picking up, he did.

It was silence on either end, I could just hear someone breathe on his end, but here I could just hear my own heart pounding heavily in my chest.

I was too scared to break the silence, scared that I'd be let down if it wasn't him, but eventually he spoke.

"_Bella…is that you?"_

A smile broke across my lips and tears came to my eyes when I heard his voice. Silly, I know, but it was the best thing I had heard for almost a week now. And even though he had divorced me, and sent me into a horrible emotional state, this voice, his voice, was my hope, and I was so happy to hear it.

"It's me." I answered, my emotion running high, I wouldn't be surprised if a tear would fall, I was just so happy to hear his voice.

Apparently he was happy to hear mine as well, as I could hear his sigh of relief.

"_Bella I'm so sorry, I never meant for any of this to happen to you, I never would have thought they would go this far, I mean hurting me is one thing but for going for you…how are you? Are you hurt?"_

He was apologising? I don't know why but I just thought he was going to go straight into police mode.

"I'm fine, I sprained my ankle when I was err…you know when I was taken, but apart from a few bruises nothing's happened since. They've been told not to…not to harm me."

"_Not to? Thank God, that's completely not their style…" _He paused for a moment but then asked, _"Is it because you're pregnant?"_

I didn't answer straight away, shocked. They must have told him, as a bargaining chip, try and sway things in their favour. I didn't want him to find out in this way though; must have been like a huge, fat slap in his face.

"_Are you pregnant Bella? Is that why you came to the house? To tell me?"_

It took a moment or two to find my voice, "Yes, it was why I came to the house, but I wasn't completely sure, so Rosalie got me some more tests…"

"_And…"_

"I'm not pregnant, it was a false reading. I'm sorry Edward, for getting myself into this situation, if I let you down…."

"_Why are you apologizing? Now wasn't the best time, if you were it would have been a terrible environment for a baby, especially when your safety is at risk."_

"That's another thing, why you think I'm pregnant, Rosalie lied to the others so they wouldn't hurt me…as much."

"_That's what she's using to try and keep you safe? Bella this is the Volturi remember, they'll only be sympathetic for so long, so don't aggravate them, don't provoke them in any way that could put you in more harm."_

I think Edward knew I wasn't stupid enough not to go up to one of the guards and start insulting them so it would end up in a beating. I think he was just trying to add his protection, the best he could over the phone.

"_Now Bella, the next thing I ask you is to try and help me find out where you are." _Eventually we reached police-mode Edward; it didn't take too long to move past his caring state. Didn't think it would be any longer to be honest._ "It won't be anything specific, just some simple yes-no questions okay?"_

"Yes." I answered, looking forward to the cubicle door, where Rosalie would be standing just on the other side, maybe leaning against the sinks, listening to every word I say and judging whether it was innocent or there was more behind it. I wonder if she even has an inkling to what Edward was saying, as it is pretty silent in the toilets, I wouldn't be surprised if she could hear the whole thing. Probably could have put it on loudspeaker unless she wanted it to look like she was giving me some sort of privacy.

"_Is there a chance that you know more or less the location of where you are?"_

"No."

"_Do you remember roughly how long it took you to get to your location?"_

"No." I heard a quiet sigh on the other end.

"_Not any idea, not even a guess of the time of the day you arrived?"_ I could hear he was getting frustrated, not with me, but probably with the lack of info he was getting. He probably thought he would have some answers.

But still, I couldn't answer this question properly without Rosalie catching on that he's asking how I got here. How else could I put it so he would get the answer I needed to get across?

"No don't worry they haven't got me on any drugs, apart from a sedative being used on me twice."

I listened carefully to Rosalie outside the door. She must be satisfied it was an innocent statement.

I could hear the cogs in Edward's brain down the phone work out what I was saying.

"_So you were knocked out on the journey there?"_

"Yes."

"_Is there a way you can give any names, and descriptions of the people who are holding you captive?"_

"No, not at the moment." Not with Rosalie outside, sort of an obvious give-a-way.

"_Is she there with you?"_

"More or less."

"_Can she hear me?"_

"No, I don't think so."

"_But she can hear you?"_

"Yes."

There was a large pounding on the door that made me almost jump out of my skin.

"That's enough now with the yes/no questions." Rosalie warned. Guess she was starting to suspect something, or thinks she's preventing it. "You have two minutes left."

"_Fine, I'll stop with the yes-no's,"_ There was a pause, _"Emmett has come down to Chicago."_

That shocked me, "He has?"

"_He is your brother, don't be too surprised. He err, gave me a personal visit."_

"Oh God what did he do?"

"_Well all of my man parts shall we say were avoided thankfully," _I gave a small smile, as although Edward was joking, Emmett could have easily done that, _"he just gave me a teaching for what happens if I break a promise to him."_

"And what promise was that?" I asked intrigued.

I heard him sigh, _"That I wouldn't let anything bad happen to you, that I would protect you from harm's way."_

I didn't answer that, as one, I can imagine the old Edward, the one who proposed to me whilst in college, would have said that to appease Emmett, but right now, after stress and arguments and divorce, it sounded like he still meant it.

Rosalie knocked on the door again. "Times up, hang up."

"Edward I've got to go."

"_Speak to you soon."_

And with that I hung up on him. I was torn whether it was what I expected from him, or whether he surprised me. I guess I would say he had a little bit of both.

I left the stall and gave the phone to Rosalie, who took the back off, removed the SIM card, and then pulled out a lighter from her bag. She placed it on the edge of the sink, then switched her lighter on, angling it so the flame started to slowly burn the SIM card. I guess she wanted to be extra careful.

Once finished, and disposed of the ashes down the sink, she walked back to the shower cubicles; she turned on the shower, and placed her hand underneath, "Huh, it's actually warm." She murmured to herself. I wasn't complaining, didn't want a cold shower.

She turned back to me, "Savor it while you can, thanks to Alec it'll probably be your last one."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I'm soooo sorry for the extended delay in posting this chapter. I did intend to release it last Thursday after I got some good news, but with little things to be sorted out, and the chapter not completley the way I wanted it, it took a bit longer.<strong>

**What did you think of it? Like it? Thanks to the readers who continue to read my story, and the new ones who alert/favourit/review it, they mean a lot to me :)**

**And so the good news I received on Thursday. As many of you may know, last week was results day, and if you've been reading these AN notes you can see I have been stressing over exams. Well people, it all paid off, COS I'M GOING TO UNI! So I was in such a good mood I was going to try and finish and post this chap, but I may have been getting ready to go out to town to celebrate :P I know it's a big ask, but since I've been in a good mood all week, is there a chance I can ask to get the review number up to 65? Continue my happiness? Maybe there's a reward in there for the readers :) sneak peeks are a given, maybe something may get posted quicker... :)**

**For anyone else, how did they get on for results day? Get into the place you wanted? Or are you waiting for GCSE's tomorrow? If so Good Luck to you!**

**Thanks again for reading :)**

**Jaimie xx**


	21. Chapter 20

**Chapter 20**

**~~*~~  
>Edward's POV<br>~*~**

An uneventful week had passed. Halfway through the third week was becoming just as uneventful.

Emmett had to leave this week, well forced to leave more like it. It was Sunday evening, and after another day with a lack of leads, no advancements in our search, we were deciding to finish up earlier than usual, however I wanted to have a quick final word with everyone about the upcoming week.

We were standing around Jasper's desk; he was packing his things up because he had plans with Alice, so I was informing them all about what I thought we needed to do.

"I don't get what more we can do though," Jacob said, "I don't mean to sound pessimistic or anything, but there are no new leads, the FBI are hardly doing anything, the best lead we thought we had with the van come to a burning dead end, is there even a next step that we can do."

_Cue guilt for not informing anyone on my phone calls with Bella…_

"Jacob's right," Jasper added, "what else can we do?"

I stopped and thought for a moment, "What if we speak to the Volturi leaders again?"

The three didn't answer; the silence was instead interrupted by Emmett's phone ringing. He pulled it out of his jacket pocket, looked at the number in a mixture of confusion and wonder, and then answered it.

"Hello? ...No not at the moment hold on a second," he pulled the phone from his ear and asked me, "It's work, is there somewhere I can take this?"

"Here, go in my office." I offered Emmett as he went inside to take the call.

He nodded thanks to me as he spoke to the caller and shut the door behind him.

"So you were saying, you want another visit to the leaders? When? Soon, like either tomorrow or the day after?"

"Yes, as well as trying to find more information, if the Volturi are happening to be watching my every move with this case, then it could look like things are going in the right directions for them."

"But Edward, we barely have any new info, what would you discuss with them."

I shrugged, "Maybe I'll lead them into a false sense of security, specifically Aro, show him our location boundary, say if they help with anything then we'll consider something about their jail sentence. He'll be thinking free from a life sentence, I'll be thinking more of a decent mattress for him to sleep on."

"Alright, well-"

"But she's my sister!" We suddenly heard Emmett roar from inside my office, causing Jasper to stop mid-sentence. I turned around to see what was happening but my office blinds were closed so we couldn't see inside.

"You're a bunch of fucking heartless bastards! Do you know that?!"

"Who's he on the phone to again?" Jacob asked.

"Work…I believe." I answered. Whoever he was talking to I hoped he wasn't of higher authority. If I spoke to Taylor like that I'd be out the door before I could even finish my sentence.

"Just fuck off!" He shouted, before there was a crash in my office, and then he shouted, "Fuck!" again.

We heard him walking over to the door so we just acted like we had been talking the whole time and not heard the commotion that went on in my office.

"Edward," Emmett said and I turned to him, he looked more upset than angry, "I may have accidentally broke one of your framed certificates."

Not what I was expecting him to say, "Don't worry about it, what happened?"

"It was from my station up in Forks, even though I'm the guy in charge, apparently I need to get back and start working again. They weren't expecting me to take almost a month off. I'm fuming, how can they do this?! I'm hardly having a holiday!"

"When do they want you back?"

"Tomorrow. I can't believe they're doing this to me, it's only just over a week left, I don't know why they can't last a little longer, it's hardly like Forks is in a state of turmoil at this current time." He said exasperated.

"I don't get it, aren't you the Chief though?" Jacob asked, "If you wanted couldn't you just tell them to, f-off as you nicely put it."

"I did, I mean I'm lucky that my department is aware of the situation, not every station is, but I'm being asked by a higher authority, so I don't really have a choice." He sighed, "I guess I'm going to have to head back and start packing."

I offered to help him, but he said he was alright, he seemed like he was going to be in a pretty bad mood till he got back home, but I told him that I would keep him updated with everything that went on here. I wouldn't be surprised if he ended up calling every single day for updates.

So Emmett left Monday morning, so that left me the rest of the day to try and organise a meeting with the Volturi on Tuesday, which I almost thought wasn't going to happen, until I got a phone call telling me they were able to bring only one of the three to the station, and only for either Wednesday or Thursday, as it would be too difficult to arrange security for their transport to and from the jail, which made perfect sense. So I agreed to let them extend it one extra day, just so all the security details were perfectly in place.

Obviously, I asked for Aro to be the one brought to the station

So Thursday came, and to help with the security of Aro's transportation, and to try and keep it out of the media, we agreed to let it take place early morning, and that I had to finish up by 5 o'clock in the morning if they were to keep with their schedule.

It wasn't the best thing for me. They had given me only an hour to speak with him. I'm starting to wonder if asking Marcus or Caius to come may have given me a longer interrogation time.

I hadn't tried to give myself a few hours sleep the night before, I was too stressed trying to think of questions that needed to be asked, as I most certainly didn't want to miss one out as I wouldn't have another chance to speak with him.

I finished off the third cup of coffee that I had had in an hour, sitting in my office, waiting for someone to come in to take us to see Aro.

"Slow down on those." Jasper said. He was sat in one of the chairs opposite me, reading through some notes he had made, his eyes peeking up as I put my empty cup down.

"I think once this is done I'm going to go home for a few hours, get some sleep, don't think Taylor will mind me coming in at lunchtime. Well he better not anyways."

I saw Jasper smile out the corner of my eye, and then there was a knock on my office door.

"Here we go."

Of course it would be an armed officer to escort us down to the interrogation room.

As we headed down to that part of the building, I noticed how locked down they seemed to have the place. Apart from armed officers, and that included the occasional SWAT member, it was clear why they chose to have the talk at this time of the day. Would have been a lot harder to close part of a busy police department.

We were taken into a room first where we were searched by an officer to make sure we had no dangerous weapons of any sort, and we had to remove things like our belts and our jackets, even our mobiles had to be kept in this room.

Once we were cleared through the security check, we were led to the interrogation room. There were two armed officers outside, and we were told one would be entering the room with us.

Bit of a pain but I guess it was all necessary since it was happening outside of the jail walls.

I entered the room first, and there Aro was, sat in the steel chair with his hands resting on top of the table, but still handcuffed to it as well.

He greeted me with his sly grin, "Ahhh Detective, how great to see you again."

"Good to see you too Aro, prison been treating you well?"

Aro visibly shivered. "The place is a hell hole; the only benefit I'm getting is that I'm not sharing a cell with someone so I don't have to deal with watching them go the toilet."

"Sounds fun." I said sarcastically.

"So why have you pulled me out my busy routine of sitting in a 6 by 8 feet cell?"

"We wanted to know if you could help us more with our investigation." Jasper said.

"You mean help Detective Cullen here save his beloved."

"I mean by trying to help us save some innocent people."

Aro studied him for a second, "What's your name son?"

Jasper looked at me wondering if it would be safe so I just nodded.

"Whitlock."

"First name?" Jasper never answered him. "Fine, Mr Whitlock, you have a wife? Girlfriend?"

"Fiancé." He answered, I could see he was getting a bit uncomfortable if he was about to ask about Alice.

"Congratulations," He smiled, "So you're quite enamoured with this woman then, let me ask you, what would you do to protect her?"

"I'd die for her." Jasper answered, completely honest as well.

"So I'm right to assume that if she was in the same position Mr Cullen's wife, sorry," He gave me a pointed look, "ex-wife, is in, you wouldn't try to first and foremost save her?"

Again, Jasper never answered, but never gave anything away with his expression either.

"Whether Edward has denied it or not, he is doing this to save her."

"I'm sure Edward's intentions for this case are perfectly honourable and he's doing it for the right cause." Jasper responded in my defence. I just remained silent. "So like I said, we want your help, to try and save some innocent people."

Aro just gave a coy smile, "If you say so."

I placed the picture of the burnt van, and the boundary we had created onto the table first.

"We managed to find the van we believed Bella was transported in, burned not too far off I-90."

"This map," Jasper continued, "includes a boundary that we have created to show the possible area they could have travelled between the time the van was spotted, and the time they contacted us."

"It's a mighty big area." Aro stated.

"We're aware of that," I said, "that's why we're asking for some help. Do you know of any possible locations they could have gone to?"

"Edward, how long did you have this case? And the many detectives before you? You know we don't have one single base. The Volturi are nationwide, looking at this map now, there a hundreds of places they could go, whether it's small, or large."

"And you can't pick one or two of the most likely ones out?"

"No I can't. Just because I'm their leader doesn't mean I know where they decide to hide out. I don't know every single place that there is, there could be hundreds more that I'm simply not aware of, and what if they've gone to one of those places, hmm?

"All I can say hear is that you're on the right lines looking for them outside of Chicago, outside of the state. If I was in charge that would be my first step, get as far away as you can. However, don't completely forget about here, as it could always be a decoy, having it right outside your doorstep could be their way of thinking it'll be the last place you look."

"Any chance you'll give us the locations of these 'home-turf' bases?"

"Nope, sorry."

"So that's it? That's all the help you can give us? I certainly hope you enjoy your remaining years in prison then."

"I really don't know how I can help you on this case Detective, I haven't been told a thing. I know you have guys watching if anyone comes to speak with me, or if anyone sends me any mail, and since neither has happened in a month then surely it must tell you I am completely out of the loop on this."

I bowed my head down in defeat. I knew he was telling the truth, and that was the worst part, this whole thing was a waste again.

"Although…" He said, and my head lifted up, "there is something that I could tell you to do, if you haven't already done it before…"

"Tell me." I pretty much ordered.

"What will I get for telling you?"

"What is it that you know and we'll tell you if you can get something." Jasper said.

"I'll sort something out for you; just tell me what it is." I said, basically ignoring what Jasper said. I noticed him give me a look out of the corner of my eye.

From Aro's expression, it looked like he liked the desperation I must be showing. "You promise?"

"I promise. If it's useful though."

"Of course." He smiled, "I believe they must have sent you some sort of computer message, or email, am I correct?" I nodded, "Well, from what I know of the supposed group who is taking charge of this…plan, their skills with a computer isn't the best. Sure they can put up a few good firewalls, and not allow you to find the IP address from the computer it was sent from, but they don't know everything."

"What are you saying?" Jasper asked.

Aro's eyes moved from me to him, "I'm sure the people you have just focused on finding where it was sent from, realised it was a dead end, and then give up. I'm saying look into more detail, there'll be a loop hole somewhere, I'm sure of it, and I have no doubt that the guys you have hired will be intelligent enough to find it."

"Then what?"

"The loophole will be sure to give you a location, go there, rescue your wife and let us be done with this."

"I mean what is it that you'll want?"

"If what I've told you leads you to your wife…"

"Go on."

"…then I'm sure I'll be getting some form of letter off the judge telling me I can walk out of the prison doors a free man."

Aro looked me straight in the eye, his face completely serious. I could see Jasper looking at me, I could imagine what he was thinking, that I can't be stupid enough to agree to this…

"No deal, I'm not letting you just waltz out of jail with no charges after all the work I've done" I said.

I could see Aro about to make some sort of remark.

"However…" I said, before he could say anything, "I'll perhaps find a way to give you a much shorter sentence. I'd take that since you could be facing life imprisonment."

There was silence as Aro studied me and considered my offer, until eventually he spoke up. "Good," Aro grinned, "It was great speaking with you Detective; I hope I'll get to hear from you soon."

I never answered him, just picked up my notes and walked out, avoiding eye contact with Jasper as we left the room.

He waited till we were in the other room getting our belongings back till he said anything.

"Are you out of your mind?! If this helps us find Bella are you really going to let him go free?"

"Of course not! I know we're not going to let them free, but we're going to make them think we are, even if it gives us some information. If we don't make contact with the Volturi leaders whilst they're in prison about their 'upcoming freedom', then if they do have someone working with them on the inside then they can't report back to base, say we're not working with them and then kill Bella on the spot." I said to him whilst the security guard handed me back my belongings.

"It's a bit risky don't you think."

"I know, but no judge would release those three, Taylor wouldn't even let me speak to one about letting them go free."

"You mean if you had a higher authority, you'd let them go."

I paused for a moment, and then sighed. "Don't judge me for the decisions I'm making."

"I'm not judging you Edward, I'm just asking, if you had the power, would you release them."

"I guess so, yes, but I would be doing it for the people of Chicago, and any other innocent civilians who the Volturi have their eyes set on."

"No, you'd be doing this for Bella." He said, probably thinking back to the conversation we had just had with Aro.

"No I wouldn't." I insisted.

"Then tell yourself that's who you're doing this for." Jasper said before throwing his jacket on and headed out of the room and towards the front door.

I sighed, picked up my own jacket, and followed him down the corridors and towards the exit, "Jasper wait," I called out, but he had got too far and wasn't stopping.

Instead of trying to talk things out with Jasper, I headed home for a few hours like I said, managing to catch a good few hours of sleep before getting ready to head back to work after lunch.

When I entered the main office I could see Jasper working at his desk, but I decided to leave him be for a little while longer.

I sent a message down to the IT guys to relay the message from Aro about looking at that email a bit more. It took a lot of persuading to let them know there was something more to it, especially as they thought it was stupid someone who didn't know the ins and outs of the computer world was telling them they had missed something out.

Eventually though, they got back to working on it. I considered sitting there and watching what they were doing, but after about half an hour I was confused and a bit bored with what they were doing. Mainly because I felt a bit useless and didn't understand what was going on.

I hated times like this, when it seemed to lag in the office. Taylor told me I should focus on other cases, let the other people like the FBI, even the IT department now, work on what's happening with the Volturi and they'll just inform me if something important turns up.

But how could I be productive with another case when there was one major one that I couldn't exactly ignore.

I left my office to make a run to the toilet, when I saw Jasper leave his desk with his stuff packed, he must be heading home.

Instead of going the bathroom, I headed in his direction to see if I could talk things out with him, I really felt like he misunderstood my intentions.

I never caught up to him till I got to the main entrance, "Hey Jasper," I called out as he left the building.

I followed him out, opening the door, but then nearly running straight into him as Jasper had stopped almost immediately outside of the door. "Jasper what's the matter?" I asked, as I peered around him to see why he had stopped.

And then I saw why.

Jasper was stood in shock over what was waiting just outside in the department parking lot.

There must have been at least hundred people stood in the parking lot, and they weren't just normal people. No, instead they were armed with cameras, microphones, tape recorders; behind them I could see the vans with, CNN, FOX, and all different types of News broadcasters.

At sight of Jasper, all these reporters had turned to see who had come out, one or two of them extended their arms holding their microphones or recorders, shouting a question or two about whether he knew anything. They didn't know who he was, but they seemed to want to know if he knew something.

But as I peered my head around Jasper to see this swarm of media, the reporters suddenly changed from being quite calm, to being quite animated. Cameras started flashing, the bright lights causing me to shield my eyes. The noise level picked up, instead pretty much every single voice that was stood there spoke out, shouting my name, questions being thrown left right and centre, all aimed towards me.

"What the hell's going on?" I asked, scanning the mass of people in front of me, slowly moving towards the building, as no barriers were set up. How did no one notice this mass crowd in front of a police building?

I scanned the parking lot and saw that there was no way I was going to get to my car, and then be able to drive out of the place…well, unscathed that is.

"I have no idea," Jasper said back, "turn around, head back inside."

I quickly done what he said, opening the door and running inside, storming to the guy on the front desk.

"You need to get people to deal with what's going on outside." I told him.

"Why? What's happening?" He asked as he picked up the phone.

"That." I said, turning my body to let him see through the door. He stood up to look over the desk and his eyes widened, and he immediately dialled a number.

I saw an officer in uniform and I quickly shouted, "Officer, stop what you're doing and hold those reporters back." He nodded to me and headed outside.

"Come on," Jasper said, "Let's see what's going on."

We headed down to the nearest room which we believed to have a television in it, but we didn't need to find one for ourselves, as when we passed one of the lower level open plan areas, we could see everyone had stopped working and was crowded by the corner of the room. I could see the television light from here but couldn't see what it said.

One of the guys turned around, and I realised it was Jacob. He didn't normally work down here so he must have just been here to see the television screen. He saw me and Jasper and walked towards us.

"What's this all about?" I asked.

"It's all over the news."

"What is?"

"This whole thing of course! The situation with Bella, the Volturi threat, the countdown to an impending nationwide attack!"

"What?! How?!" I started to wonder whether bringing Aro out of jail had brought some suspicion with the media.

"Clearly someone in the department sold out. We're the only ones that know all the details, and somehow the media have _all_ the details."

I ran my hand through my hair in frustration. How could someone do this? They knew that we were purposefully withholding the information from the public, for their own good. For their own selfish need for money they've put the department, and especially me, in a whole load of shit. I had to see what they were saying on the news, see how much extra stress I was now going to deal with.

I headed over to the TV, and moved through the group so I was at the front.

Currently, it was just the news anchors in the studio going through the details of this major breaking news. The banner at the bottom of the screen alternated with different titles.

_NATIONWIDE SECURITY THREAT BY VOLTURI GANG OVER LEADERS IN PRISON._

_FEMALE TEACHER BEING HELD HOSTAGE._

_DETECTIVE CULLEN, HUSBAND TO HOSTAGE, FORCED TO MAKE DECISION BY NEXT WEEK._

_PRESIDENT SET FOR A PRESS CONFERENCE ON THE MATTER._

"The whole country is going to go into a state of panic." Was all I could say, my eyes still glued to the screen. They had switched to a reporter live outside of the department, who said that they had just seen me but didn't have a chance to ask any questions since I ran back inside.

"Great now I look like some sort of coward." I muttered.

"Cullen," Someone called, and I cringed, because I knew it was Taylor, and I wasn't looking forward to a telling off, "Come here, quickly."

I done what he said, and couldn't help but notice the eyes that followed me as I walked up to him.

"Walk with me to my office." He said, and it was strange to hear him not be mad, well at me.

When we got there he shut the door and stood beside me, "I know we've got a major problem here, and I most certainly know you never done it, it was known in that meeting that releasing this to the media would be a bad idea.

"Anyway I wanted to tell you we're getting someone to investigate who leaked that information straight away."

"Good."

"Is there anyone you've noticed snooping around, asking more than what his pay grade should know, that sort of thing?"

"What? No, I haven't seen anyone act in that way."

"Alright then, as I'm sure you'll know we'll have to change a few things now. We're getting someone to release a statement later today about the situation."

"What are you going to say?"

"There's nothing much we can't say, unfortunately the public are aware of the risk so we can't even play that down."

"And me?"

"Hell I don't even know if we can get you out of this building in one piece without you being attacked by those media vultures. We first need to see if we can get them out of the parking lot, then if they start blocking the main road I guess we can start booking them or something, try and get them away. Where are you staying right now?"

"The hotel the department put me in."

"They have security right, I'm sure you'll be safe from the media there. That's if we can get you out of here of course."

"And if I can't?" I asked, my eyes moving to the window. I could hear the commotion outside as the police officers tried to sort the situation out.

"We'll sort something out Cullen," He said as he placed his hand on my shoulder, "don't you worry about it."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Guys, I am super-mega-really sorry for the time it took for me to update. I really wasn't expecting University to keep me so busy. I'm in 9-5, have football training on top of that most days, plus homework etc so I just have enough time to eatwash/sleep.**

**For those who have stuck with this story from the beginning, it was published over a year ago, and I'm so glad you're still interested in it. Shoutout to the reader who PM'd me asking when the next update will be. It makes me so happy that you still want to read this story.**

**So, as a New Year reward, here it is, and I will try my best to not leave such a gap between updates!**

**Hope you's all had a great Christmas, and hope you have a Happy 2013 :)**

**Thanks, Jaimie xx**

**PS: Sneak peeks in the reviews as usual :)**


	22. Chapter 21

**Chapter 21**

**~~*~~  
>Edward's POV<br>~*~**

With a week left under the Volturi's orders, I was becoming desperate. Every possible lead that we had over the past 3 weeks had just fallen apart; from tracking the van to speaking to the leaders themselves. The FBI's database had come up with hundreds of locations within our marked boundary we had created, and without suitable evidence, we wouldn't be able to raid each and every one of them to try and find Bella.

I had been told by Rosalie that tomorrow night was going to have to be the final call made to Bella. So that lost me another possible chance of trying to find some extra clues, but thinking back to the previous phone calls we shared, I didn't get a single piece of suitable information from them.

Instead we talked about random things. Topics that I think helped take Bella's mind off the situation she was in. Which I didn't mind of course. It was actually really nice and comforting just to hear her for those, ten, fifteen minutes.

The last call we had, just the night before had ended on quite a worrying tone, well for me at least.

The conversation had been going fine, just a normal chat, checking up on how she was, but when I was given that final minute warning off Rosalie, my mind just panicked.

This was our penultimate call, I had been speaking to Bella for just under a month now, and still I hadn't used this opportunity to my advantage. What would happen if something happened the day the Volturi called, something that could maybe be prevented if I would have done more with these calls?

My mind thought on how if Bella tried to give away any details then she'd stop these calls, but I was only going to have one more call left. It wasn't too much of a sacrifice.

So with what I guessed was 45 seconds of my time remaining, I just went for it.

"Bella listen to me," I interrupted her going on about what had been released to the media, "you need to tell me something about your location, I need something, anything…"

"_Edward…you know that's impossible."_

"Just think, anything you can think of that might be useful to me, I only have a few days left Bella, I don't care if I lose my final call with you, if it's worth me being able to find you then it's worth the sacrifice."

I could just hear in the background Rosalie telling Bella to say goodbye soon.

"_I've got to go…"_

"Please Bella, anything." I pleaded.

"_Wait there's something…"_ She said, as I could hear Rosalie louder now telling her to hang up.

"Go on, quickly." I told her.

"_Last night, I heard thunder-._" She said rushed, but was still cut off, there then sounded like a small scramble and then all I could hear was the dialing tone.

My first thoughts were hoping Bella was ok. I know Rosalie was being nice with us with this deal, but she was still one of them, and I didn't know what she was capable of in terms of punishment.

The next was what she had just told me. She'd heard thunder last night.

This was perfect, maybe the one piece I needed to find Bella before the deadline.

I regretted not being in my office at that time. I was currently still in that hotel the department we're paying for, but I still had Wi-Fi, so I could still do a general search on my laptop.

As I set it up, and loaded Google on my internet, I first typed in 'weather report in US past 7 days', but all the links that came up specified certain cities. I knew this would be difficult, especially without that map of the boundary the van could have travelled, and comparing it to the FBI database of suspected hideouts.

I sat back in my chair. This was going to take forever unless I used the police database, and I wasn't going to be able to use it till tomorrow morning when I went into work.

I sighed and ran my hands through my hair. These were valuable hours that we were losing.

I stared at the Google search engine, just watching the cursor flash.

I leaned forward and typed in something, just to see if anything would turn up.

_Rosalie King._

To be honest I don't know why I didn't do this sooner or more importantly on a department computer. I don't know why I thought Google would produce something worthwhile, and from what results came up, it looked like I was right.

The links to _Rosalie King_ were obviously not the ones that matched this mysterious woman who was in league with the Volturi. I'll just have to add looking her up properly on my list of things to do when I was in work.

So here I was today, in work, only having to deal with a couple of reporters that had decided to stay at the station and try and get a few answers out of me.

Still, things were looking slightly optimistic as Rosalie had given me a text to tell me the time of the final call tomorrow.

I'd already put in my request for a detailed weather report of the country, and I had managed to get a copy of the location boundary. All I had to do was wait so I could compare the two maps and hopefully help me find Bella a lot more quickly.

So my next step, to search Rosalie in the database.

I don't know what I expected to turn up, I didn't know if she had a previous criminal record, or what.

I waited 10 minutes for the database to come up with absolutely nothing.

Then I remembered something she had said, _'It's Mrs.…'_

Maybe her husband worked for the Volturi. I doubted he wouldn't be. I mean who would let their spouse willingly work for someone like the Volturi? Whoever he was he must work for them, and hopefully he had a criminal record.

As I typed in _King_ into the database I knew I was going to get a quite a lot of results. I just hoped there wasn't that many – i.e. if needed I could search through each one individually if I had to.

I had to wait a bit longer for this search, which wasn't a good sign.

As I sat twiddling my thumbs for the results to turn up, there was a knock on my office door, and in came one of the officers I had asked about the weather report for.

"Here you go Detective," he said handing me three large pieces of paper, the size of posters, "Each one is a weather report starting from 12 hours ago, 24, and then 36," He said, holding each corresponding poster. "And also a list of cities with a detailed report as well." He showed me a small stack of A4 pieces of paper.

I got out of my seat and to the officer, grabbing the three posters, "Thank you." I simply said as he left, as I picked the 24 hour one, and pinned it up at the wall, and then grabbed a marker pen.

Thunder. That's what I needed to pick out.

Firstly, I needed to see where the boundary was. I fished out the copy of the van boundary that was created, and drew a matching circle on the bigger map.

I then sat down on my chair with the stack of papers and a highlighter, firstly crossing off cities in the Southern States, as I already knew they wouldn't have been able to get that far. Then, as soon as they were marked off, I highlighted any city which reported thunder.

As soon as I've done that I can mark them down on the map and see which ones were in that boundary. And then I knew the next step would be matching those points with suspected Volturi locations, and hopefully would give us the ability to search them. Maybe I could find Bella before Friday.

I must have spent a good hour or so crossing out, highlighting, matching up cities on all three maps, I was so caught up in working I didn't hear my office door open.

"What are you doing?" Someone asked from behind, startling me.

I turned round and saw Vincent at the door looking at my work, Jasper and Jacob walked in following him.

"Oh, just a little something, nothing important."

"We hadn't seen you today so thought we'd come in to say hello, see if you knew anything more about Bella." Jasper said. Jacob had wandered over to the maps on my wall. "Seems like you were really deep in work then, sure it wasn't important?"

"No just a personal thing. So have you not heard anything?"

"Is this a weather report?" Jacob asked, missing the previous question.

"What? Oh err yes it is."

"What's personal that's got you so deeply interested in the weather?"

"Well, it's not exactly personal but more to do with the case."

"Really, what information has led you to the weather?"

"Nothing much, don't worry about it, so have you heard anything else?"

"No unfortunately, the IT department are still working on finding that supposed loophole Aro said, so apart from that there's nothing else."

"Damn, we're really running out of time."

I noticed Vincent was still staring at my poster of the weather.

"I don't get it, why are you looking at the weather forecast from last night?"

"It's err, just a hunch."

"What sort of hunch?"

I hesitated, how much could I tell them?

"It's only small, I'm just seeing if it's worth following up on." They all still looked at me expecting me to tell them what it was.

"…There's an idea that there was a thunderstorm where Bella was last night."

"And how did you find this out?" Vincent asked.

"Err…An undercover agent who has been scouting out a possible location…he noted a thunderstorm at a point a few miles away from his location, so he wanted to match it to our own map." Even I wouldn't have believed that reason, and by the looks of the others, they didn't either. "Look I just know alright, I'm not allowed to tell you my source but it's highly valuable and trustworthy."

"Well why hasn't there been any other news about this in the department?"

I shrugged, "I think my source just wants to limit his contacts to like one person to help hide his cover."

There was a pause between them, "How are you sure about this again?" Jasper asked me.

I looked between the three of them, unsure about whether I should tell them my little secret. But I could trust these three; well I hadn't known Vincent for that long, but he had helped me a lot on this case.

I quickly moved to the 'indoor' windows in my office and shut the blinds, and then turned to face them.

"I need you all to promise me that what I tell you does not leave this room, at all. Do you hear me?"

The three of them nodded, completely intrigued by what I was about to say.

"I just made that up."

"That's it." Vincent asked, his face looking like that was the worst piece of interesting news ever.

"So there's no source?" Jacob said.

"No there's a source, but it's not an undercover agent." The three of them stared blankly at me. "Look you've just got to trust me on this."

"I'm confused." Jacob said.

"Same here," Vincent said, "So they're not an undercover agent, yet you are completely sure this material is valid."

I sighed and gave in, "About two weeks ago I got a call, on my own cell," I started, walking back to behind my desk, their eyes followed be intently, "the call was from the Volturi," I held up my hand to stop whatever reactions was about to come from them, "it wasn't the man I've been talking to, it was a woman."

I saw Vincent's eyebrows furrow in confusion. "I've never known a woman to make a negotiation, or even be a spokesperson for the gang."

"It wasn't that type of deal; anyway, to cut a long story short, she has connections with Bella…" Jacob's and Jasper's eyes widened, I took a breath, "…she said she could get me in contact with her, and, since that call, I've been speaking to Bella one or two times a week."

"What?!" Vincent beat Emmett and Jasper to it.

"Look, I know I should have said something…" I explained.

"Damn right you should have!" Jacob shouted, "Could you not put aside your own selfish needs and realize how valuable it would have been for the case!"

"I know it's important, but I swore I wouldn't tell anyone otherwise I wouldn't be able to speak to her anymore, it's bad enough I'm telling you three now."

"Is she alright?" Jacob asked, appearing to calm down following my blatant concealment of information.

"Yes, the woman who I had spoken to promised me she'd give her a bit of added protection, keep an eye on her so she's not left alone with any of the creeps she's with."

Jacob nodded his head, his body relaxing slightly in relief.

"What's the deal?" Jasper asked.

"If she keeps to her end of the deal, then I've promised her that when this all finishes, then she can walk away freely, no charges whatsoever."

"That's a bit iffy isn't it?" Jacob added, "I mean, how do you know she just doesn't change her mind somewhere along the line."

"That's not the question you need to be asking Jacob?" Vincent interrupted, and then he turned to me, "Has she given you a location?"

Jacob and Jasper turned to me in hope, but their faces fell when I shook my head.

"No, if Bella even utters a letter of where she is, the line will be cut and I wouldn't hear from her again. She stays with her in the room when the call is made so if her responses seem a bit strange then she warns us. Plus, she told me not to bother with trying to trace the call. She uses a specially blocked number, which is different every time."

"Well at least this woman isn't completely stupid." Vincent muttered.

"Did she give you her name?" Jacob asked hopefully, "I mean if we had her name we could do loads of searches of known locations…" His sentence died down when he saw me shook my head.

I knew I was lying, but I needed this connection to the Volturi. Of course I had thought about using that information to my advantage, but this Rosalie had put her trust in me, and more importantly, it was keeping Bella safe.

"Trust me Jacob, if she would have given me her name two weeks ago, I would have used it within seconds."

"So what, you're just having some friendly catch up chats then?" Vincent said.

"Don't make it sound like this has been a waste of time Riozzi, you might think it was useless but for me it's gave me some piece of mind. It's not my fault or Bella's for that matter, that she's not given complete privacy so she can disclose this information with me."

"He has a point though Edward," Jasper said, "the deadline is in a few days, and we have no leads, and now you tell us about this opportunity you've been given, and you kept it to yourself?"

"You know I had to keep it quiet Jasper, if I would have utilized it then the calls would have stopped, and they probably would have changed locations again, making our search even wider, even harder. By keeping her promise, I've at least managed to keep her in one location. So we know she is in that boundary, and now we know that she's in a place where there was thunder last night."

I pointed to the map, to the boundary and the few markings I had made on the map. "Just think, all we have to do is match a thunderstorm location with a known suspected Volturi hideout, and we can call for a raid."

"Well how far into it are you?"

"I've still got a lot of cities, towns to go through. If there was the slightest report of thunder then it's being highlighted."

"Do you need help?" Jacob offered.

"No it's alright, I need you three to keep things going outside, following up any other leads, checking up with the FBI, the IT department, anything, but no one else can know about this information, not until I'm certain I've found something, agreed?"

The three of them nodded.

"Alright then, I'll inform you if I find anything."

The three of them left the room then, Vincent giving one last glancing look at the map before shutting the door behind him.

It seemed like a massive weight had been lifted off my shoulders by letting them know that, and having them know this now may help me more, help lift a bit of my workload. It could help me find Bella that much quicker, that we wouldn't even have to deal with the deadline talk. I was sincerely hoping this would be true.

**~~*~~  
>Bella's POV<br>~*~**

The time was approaching for my phone call with Edward. I had to admit, it made these days locked up in this hell bearable.

At first I was nervous. Silly I know, but I hadn't seen or spoken to him since we had split up, I thought he hated my guts.

And then when I heard his voice, it just made me feel safer that I was talking to him, even if I was still in some unknown place. And it killed me that I was only given a certain amount of time to talk to him, because I would have preferred to talk for hours, just as a comfort for me. Of course on the first call he would ask the obvious questions about my wellbeing, and if there was anyway I could disclose my location to him. It shocked me when he asked if I was pregnant. I didn't understand how he knew. Whether Alice had found the test and told him, or whether the Volturi were using the information as an extra bargaining chip, I didn't know. Plus, I couldn't tell on the phone what his reaction was when I said I wasn't.

Rosalie would stand in the room with me when I made the call, so I couldn't give extra information like names or even facial descriptions. I hadn't seen outside since I had managed to get out of the van, so I didn't even know the time zone I was in.

But still, it surprised me that he would still willingly speak with me, despite the fact he wasn't getting anything useful from it. I wondered if he even told someone else in the department, like Jacob or Jasper, had he even told Emmett that he was speaking with me? Probably not, Emmett would have likely made Edward let him speak to me.

Fortunately for me, my wounds had healed up pretty well by now, I was even to walk round the room pretty well on my bad foot, but this meant it was harder for Rosalie to have a valid reason to come see me.

Plus, other members weren't happy I was getting privileges of more than one shower a week, hell some wanted me to just suffer in that room I'm in.

So me leaving the room a lot was bound to cause some suspicion at some time, so now Rosalie arranged the calls at early hours of the morning, when the majority of guards had went home, or were sleeping, so she had to sneak me into a room just to avoid any other suspicion.

So right now she had taken me to a room she had used before. Had said the other rooms in the corridor weren't used for anything, so it was unlikely that anyone would be in this part of the building.

She had just left me to make one quick check that no one was in the vicinity and accidentally stumble on what we were doing.

Rosalie walked into the room at that moment. The area must be clear for the call to be made. She placed the new phone in my hand and let me dial Edward's number.

Just as I was entering the numbers, there was a loud commotion coming from outside. I thought she had said the area was clear?

Apparently Rosalie had thought the same, as her expression was a mixture of confusion and worry. Rosalie lifted her hand to tell me to be quiet, and she slowly moved to the door to get a better listen to what was happening outside.

The voices outside seemed to get louder as they moved down the corridor, and from what I could tell, they didn't sound too happy.

I watched Rose's face to see her reaction, when suddenly the voices seemed to stop outside the room we were in, and Rose quickly turned to me as if to warn me about something, when the door burst open.

Rosalie, who was still standing behind it, was knocked down to the floor from the force of two men who had knocked the door off of its hinges.

In an attempt to hide what we were doing, I quickly threw the phone to the side and was happy it went under the table; hopefully none of them would see it.

The first two men who had barged in quickly bent down to pick Rosalie up. At first I thought they were helping her, that they hadn't meant to hurt her when they knocked the door down, but to my shock, when they got her to stand, one either side of Rosalie, who was still dazed, the one on the right suddenly punched her in the stomach, causing her to try and keel over, but with the two men holding her up, she couldn't.

Laurent walked in next, looking pitifully at Rosalie, shaking his head, and then walked into the room.

Royce followed in afterwards, and walked to Rosalie, grabbing her chin in his hand holding it up so she looked at him, "I'm disappointed in you Rose," he suddenly used the hand that was holding her chin to pull back and slap her across the face.

"We haven't done anything." She tried to say, she looked like she was about to pass out in any minute.

"Now that's not entirely true is it now," Laurent said, and his attention turned to me, "you might as well tell me, Riley's already told us everything."

Rosalie's head then bowed down in defeat, and she lifted it slightly just to look me in the eye, "He must have told someone." She said quietly.

"I'm sorry what was that," Laurent said, "doesn't matter anyway, we've got what we needed to know," as he said this he bent down to the table and grabbed the phone from underneath. Well, I had tried to hide it.

"Take Rosalie out of here; make sure she's punished appropriately, Royce…" Royce's head lifted up from looking at Rosalie, who was being pulled out of the room, Laurent looked from the phone to me, "…deal with her."

A wicked grin appeared across his face as the breath got caught in my throat. Laurent walked out of the room, as Royce started to stalk towards me, and I started to move backwards in an attempt to put as much space between him and myself, even though I knew it was futile.

"Just don't kill her." Laurent added.

"My pleasure." Royce said, as Laurent shut the door behind him, and I was left alone.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: So yeahh I guess I wasn't able to update as much as I thought i could, so I apologise, but uni's finished for summer so I'll try my very best to actually update for you all.<strong>

**I appreciate all those who follow/favourite/review the story, and please let me know what you think of this chapter :) Sneak peaks are given to those who review :)**

**Thanks**

**Jaimie x**


	23. Chapter 22

**Chapter 22**

**~~*~~  
>Edward's POV<br>~*~**

It was about to be my final call with Bella.

I didn't want to start thinking how this could possibly be my final, final call ever with Bella, or be the last time I would ever hear her voice. Didn't want to think of how I would end this call, what I would even say to her knowing what was going to happen in just two days.

I checked my watch to see Rosalie was going to call me in ten minutes, so I made sure my blinds were closed and my door was locked as usual. Whilst closing the blinds I looked over to my now completed map of my own suspected locations. Locations were there was thunder just a couple of days ago.

Now that I had completed it, I had made a sneaky call to Agent Weber the night before, giving her a list of 4 addresses closest to where the van had been found. I chose only four to try and make it subtle, I didn't want the FBI chasing me up on where I had confirmed a good dozen or so locations without a legitimate reason. Four made it look like a good bit of hard work from the department without question.

We couldn't order a raid at this stage, not with it being so close to the call, if we storm the place and it's the wrong location things could turn very quickly, very badly.

So instead, Angela had told me they would be scouting the place, collecting detail, trying to see if they can find anything that could perhaps tell them that their address is the right address, which was fine by me. I wanted things to go as smooth as possible.

As I sat down with what was possibly a few seconds remaining till she called, I wondered if I should maybe say something more to Bella. More to do with my feelings. Should I apologise for what I've put her through? Not just here but with the divorce? Or would it be completely inappropriate of me to say how these calls have helped me get through the past month?

I sighed, running my hand through my hair as I stared at my phone, contemplating whether or not I should do it.

But five minutes had passed since the time agreed, and the phone still hadn't rung.

Nothing wrong with that, only a few minutes late, I can understand if there's something important delaying them.

Half an hour had passed.

_Maybe they were being held up_. Say for example they couldn't get to the place they usually made the call because there was someone in their path. I wasn't bothered if this Rosalie wanted to be extra careful, I would be thankful if she's taking extra care.

Over an hour had passed.

I was starting to get a little nervous. Of course it was me who had said to call every other day, maybe this one night they can't call me, might change the time to tomorrow evening.

Yet I couldn't help but get the feeling that something was wrong. Every other time we had done this she called on the exact time she had given me, what could the holdup be?

Finally, when I was about to give up and think she had abandoned our last call, my phone rang making me jump, and quickly grabbing it to answer.

"Hello?"

"_Hello Detective." _A male voice replied.

"I'm sorry who is this?"

"_Expecting someone else were you Detective? Maybe I don't know…Isabella?"_ I froze. He laughed darkly at my lack of a response. _"Not what you were expecting Detective? I'm sorry but you won't be speaking to Isabella tonight."_

"I don't know what you're talking about," I said, trying to play innocent, "Who is this?"

"_Nice try Detective...you know perfectly well who this is and who you were expecting at the other end of this call, so there is no point trying to play the innocent act with us._

"_Hopefully you'll know, or you certainly will now, that what our dear friend and your wife done were more than against the rules, and so like anyone who breaks the rules, they had to be punished…"_

The breath caught in my throat as I panicked. I can't have screwed this up now, not when we were so close.

"_Fortunately for you she's alive, we still need her for our plans, but since you were expecting _something_ then we can't exactly leave you empty handed now can we? So detective, I'd check your email if I were you…"_ I looked to my computer screen where a small icon popped up in the bottom corner of the screen indicating I had a new email, _"…I'll be speaking to you soon."_ And with that he hung up, leaving me with the phone loosely in the hand, staring at the computer screen.

I swallowed nervously as I moved the mouse and opened my inbox, looking at the unread message from an anonymous sender. I took a deep breath in and opened it, and already feared the worst when I noticed there was an attached image.

My mind flashed to the last image that I was sent, of Bella tied up and unconscious, so I didn't bother reading the short message that it came with as the picture loaded before me.

My breath caught in my throat again as I saw what the Volturi had sent me.

Lying on the floor, Bella looked lifeless.

She was almost face down, bar her head tilted to the side, a side that already was forming a discolouration to her pale skin, her lip looked cut, a small trail of blood had trickled down her face. Her eyes were closed; unconscious. Her shirt had risen slightly, and you could see the redness there that I know would form into dark bruises.

If it wasn't for that man saying she was alive, I would have believed they had just sent me an image of her dead body.

Instead, I knew that she had been badly beaten. Despite the slight colour on her cheek I would guess they made the damage to her abdomen, trying to preserve her face perhaps for the upcoming talk.

And now as I looked, the waves of guilt started to hit me, and I remembered how Jacob had described me doing this, for my '_own selfish needs._' I should have just called it off, after yesterday it was nervy after how the last call ended…although, could that be the reason? Me asking for information? Did they somehow find out?

No it couldn't have been, Rosalie had arranged this talk, if the Volturi would have found out earlier they would have contacted me earlier.

And then I remembered yesterday, and my hand suddenly tightened into a fist when there was a knock on my office door.

"Edward?" I heard Jasper behind my door as he tapped on the glass.

"Sure he hasn't gone home?" Jacob asked.

"Swear he hasn't, it's only early" Jasper said, "hold on a sec." I heard some jingling and then the lock to my door rattling. I always forget I had given Jasper a spare key. Not conventional to have a spare but there's been more than one time when I've actually needed to borrow his key or get him to go in my office for me.

The door opened and the two of them walked in. "Edward did you not hear me knocking?"

Jacob had walked over to the windows and started opening the blinds, "Why is it so dark in here as well? You're not holing yourself up in here are you?"

I never answered them, my eyes still glued to the screen.

"Edward?" Jasper asked again, with a slightly worried tone.

"Did you tell anyone yesterday?" I asked him, my eyes not moving away from the picture.

"What about?" He asked.

"About the calls," I said, finally able to pull my eyes away from the screen and to Jasper, "did you tell anyone?"

"I never told anybody, you know I wouldn't Edward." Jasper said.

"Me neither," Jacob added, "why, what is this about?"

"They found out, the Volturi, they just called me then, they know about me speaking to Bella, they…they sent me an email of what happened…"

I gestured to the computer, where the image of Bella's beaten up body was still on the screen, but I never looked at it again, I don't think I could.

The two of them walked over warily to the computer.

"Oh God…" Jacob said, whilst Jasper stood there in shock, "…is she alright? I mean, is she…?"

"No." I answered and they both breathed a thankful sigh of relief, "She's alive, but she's severely injured, and I can't be sure what's happened to the woman, the one who contacted me." If they had done that to Bella, I wouldn't be surprised if Rosalie was in a worse state, or maybe even dead.

"Is it going to affect the call?" Jacob asked.

"Not that I know of, with it being in two days I don't think they want to risk any major changes, I think them sending that was just a form of punishment, but also a warning, that they will go through with what they've said."

The two of them just stood there, absorbing my words, as they know we were playing a risky game with the department adamant we weren't going to negotiate with this sort of threat. I think we believed we would have a chance, but this now, has hit us all heavily, like we've all been hit by a bucket of cold water to awaken us to the real life situation before us. A hard hit to reality, that maybe Bella might not be able to survive this.

"We're so sorry Edward," Jasper spoke up, and I watched him move the mouse to presumably close the window of the email, "we honestly never told anyone about the calls, I never even told Alice, you must believe us."

"It's alright, I do." I told the two of them, looking at them both in the eye to let them know it wasn't their fault.

"Well who else could it be?" Jacob wondered, but then it was like a stupid realization that I forgot about the fourth person in the room that day.

Just as we thought this we saw him, Vincent, walking across the room in the opposite direction and towards one of the corridors.

Filled with sudden rage, I quickly stormed out of my office before Jasper or Jacob could stop me, and started to follow him down the corridor.

I waited for the opportune moment, and as soon as I realized there was no one else but the two of us, I closed the gap between us, grabbed his shoulder and shoved him into the nearest room.

Thankfully the office was empty, otherwise I'm sure the officer whose it was would judge what I was doing.

"What the fu-" Vincent shouted as I twisted him round and shoved him against the wall. "Edward what the hell are you doing?!"

"Who did you tell?!" I shouted at him, my hands still tightly grasped his blazer, shaking him as I asked him.

"What the hell are you going on about?"

"Don't fuck with me Vincent, who the hell did you tell?"

"Tell who about what?"

"Bella for god's sake! About the calls!"

"What I'm confused?"

I let him go by shoving him against the wall, then running my hands through my hair in desperation. "They fucking found out Vincent. The Volturi found out about my calls with their source, they beat her up! They beat her up and then sent me an image of her battered body!"

"Edward I-"

"So who the hell did you tell?!"

"What?"

"I tell you, Jasper and Jacob yesterday, and the day after they have somehow found out. There was a reason I was told not to tell anyone, and I thought I could trust the three of you, but the only way they could have found out would be if you told someone!"

"Whoa, why am I the main suspect here?!"

"Because I've already spoken to Jasper and Jacob, and I'm going to be straight up and tell you I trust those two a hell of a lot more than I trust you!"

"Edward, you've got to believe me, I never told anyone." I looked at him skeptically, "Honestly I never, Edward I wouldn't risk the case like that, nor would I risk the safety of your ex."

"Then how the hell could they have found out?!"

"I-I don't know! Maybe they got caught! You did say you've been speaking to her for a while, maybe it was just a day too long? You're forgetting that the Volturi are bound to be watching you, watching your moves to see if things are moving along for them, perhaps they just found out?"

"That's a little hard to believe don't you think?"

"Edward I swear I never told anyone, you have to believe me." He pleaded with me.

I looked at him straight in the eye, looking at his expression, looking genuinely scared of me in this situation, but I could see no signs of guilt.

I sighed, leaning back, deflated against the desk, "I'm sorry Vincent, seeing that image has just shaken me up a bit, I just don't know how they could have found out."

He stepped away from the wall, "It's alright Edward I completely understand, let me help you."

"How?"

"Well only the four of us know about the calls, and about the image, I have some forensic training from a few years ago, I can analyse it for you, save you taking it to forensics and getting asked questions?"

I looked up to him, "Alright, use my office, the email is already set up, I think I'm going to go home. Call me if you find anything alright?"

"Of course." And with a smile he left.

**~~*~~  
>Bella's POV<br>~*~**

I woke up slowly with a groan. I wasn't lying on the bed, but rather on the cold floor, as if I had just been thrown into the room and left there.

I tried to pick myself off of the floor, and winced as it seemed all my body was in pain. My head was pounding; my ribs were hurting so much it hurt to breathe. I lightly pressed my hand against my body, testing to see if anything was broken, but I think I was just badly bruised.

I was lucky I was in a dark room, with nothing reflective to see what I would look like; I don't think I could have handled it.

When Rosalie was dragged out of that room yesterday and I was left alone with Royce, my mind went into panic over what could happen. I couldn't blame myself for automatically thinking of the worst scenarios, I was well aware of just a few of the charges some Volturi members had that didn't involve murder or drug dealing.

After the first hit I think my mind put up some sort of mental barrier as the remainder just seemed like a blur.

From what I could piece together, it all seemed to be literally 'above the belt', which I was quite grateful, and whatever beating or throwing around I got only lasted for a short amount of time, as I can vaguely remember Laurent returning to the room to tell Royce to stop.

Then I was picked up by someone, carried to my room and dumped onto the cold floor and left there.

Lying on this floor no doubt didn't help any of my injuries one bit; I could barely pick myself off of the floor without my whole body being in pain.

Instead I tried to shuffle over to the bed, dragging myself slowly so I wouldn't aggravate any of my aches and pains, even though I was wincing the entire time, whether it was putting weight onto a certain muscle or even breathing too heavily.

By the time I had reached the bed I heard footsteps in the hall again. Instead of trying to tire myself and look like a fool by failing to climb onto the bed, I just propped myself up and leaned against it in a position that didn't hurt too much.

"So as soon as I finish my placement I'll be a fully qualified Doctor." Said the first voice, one I didn't recognise.

"Good, the sooner the better, I have a feeling we are going to be replacing Rosalie soon…" The second voice replied, Laurent, as they stopped outside the door.

"What? Just because of last night? I mean sure she done wrong but she's one of our best, and plus Royce…"

"I think Royce is in agreement with me, her heart's not in it anymore, I don't think she's ever been in it, so we can't take any chances with her. It's such a shame." He said, as the door creaked open and light streamed in, "And look who's awake." Laurent grinned, "Looks like Royce actually listened to me for once. Her face is workable, bit of make-up and she'll be all set for tomorrow."

"What would you like me to do?"

"Check the rest of her out, make sure she has no broken ribs or internal bleeding or anything, since Rosalie can't be used you're going to have to keep an eye on her alright?" He then turned to me, "And you, before you get any smart ideas about brainwashing this doctor, just know you are never leaving this room now, and will be having a 24 hour guard outside your door."

With that he left, leaving me alone with this new Doctor.

And as he started checking up on me, asking questions that related to only my injuries, I started to think that Rosalie was a one in a million to get in this sort of situation, and how lucky I was that she took some form of pity on me and decided to help me out. How she put her life in danger just so I and Edward could have some form of comfort in talking to each other.

I just hoped she was alright.

**~~*~~  
>Edward's POV<br>~*~**

It seemed like now, with just one day before the Volturi call me, the office went into overdrive.

I had been called in and out of meetings with Taylor and other superior members of staff about what other departments knew, or more specifically what they didn't, and what different angles they were looking at.

I had Agent Weber in and out of my office as well, keeping me up to date with the FBI, and working alongside me and my other colleagues to see if we could find anything, just one small piece of evidence that could lead us to them.

We were also trying to fight off one plan of attack from the NSA, which they had agreed to hold off on during the month, but now since it was so close to the end they wanted to take action, where we just used the FBI's list of suspected locations within our boundary, and somehow raid them all at the same time.

Apart from the obvious lack of manpower that we needed for that to work, we couldn't have the risk of them finding out we were performing these raids and it ultimately backfiring on us, and the nationwide attack was brought forward.

I had to keep working, because any time I paused I pictured Bella's bruised body, and it would make me feel ill. It was my fault she was going through these beatings, it was all to get a message to me and it wasn't fair. I just hoped she would forgive me, forgive the endless amount of apologies I would give if I could save her, even though she would have every right to ignore them. As long as she could be given the chance to ignore them, alive and turning them down would make me happy.

I was in the middle of looking up any data files on the suspected locations, that were within our boundary, and were in range of a thunderstorm, so that I could at least try and differentiate between the more and less likely hiding places, when Ben, the technician who I had saw in Taylor's office just the other week, burst through my office, out of breath and grasping some sheets of paper in his hand.

I was just about to ask why he just walked in when he quickly spoke, "Detective, I'm sorry to interrupt, but this is really important, please, come with me, we think we've found something."

I stood up immediately and followed him out of the room, on edge as he took me to 'IT central' as we all call it. A room full of rows of computers, and at the front was one big screen, probably where they do presentations of findings. When I arrived, there was a buzz in the air, as they were all talking animatedly amongst one another, and it seemed to increase when I entered the room.

"What have you got for me? And before you even start, dial down the fancy computer talk, alright?"

Ben nodded, "We've been constantly linked to the people down in Forensics and the FBI, all of us analyzing the computer message that was sent, since you told us there was a loophole."

He pressed a button on the keyboard of the computer in front of him, and gestured for me to look at the big screen. On it was a map of the world, and random cities would flash, with a red line between the last city and the next city, as though they were linked for some reason.

"Normally, if an email is sent, we can trace it back to the person who sent it, but sometimes, if the sender knew what they were doing, and know they don't want to be found, they divert the signal, bounce it off different things so we can't trace it back to the previous position. The diversion is endless; the signal will continue switching from different places, that's what you're looking at on the screen, the signal being switched to different IP addresses."

"Don't mean to be harsh, but I thought this would be useful."

"It is, like I said before, being connected to the FBI and their resources do have its advantages." He pressed a key again, and the picture zoomed to the USA, and then zoomed again to the state of Illinois. "There are thousands and thousands of cities in the world, billions of buildings to choose from to bounce this signal off, but we decided to look for the buildings the FBI had in their database." He pressed the zoom key again and it zoomed into a 30 mile radius surrounding Chicago.

"It was extremely lucky that someone actually noticed this, the chances were almost impossible."

"What am I looking for?"

Ben walked up to the screen and pointed at a spot just outside of the city. "Keep watching."

I did as he said and focused on that spot. Within a few seconds, a little icon appeared and then disappeared just as quickly, showing the signal was being bounced off that location.

"Now keep watching that same point again." I continued looking at it, and just over a minute later the same point flashed again. I turned to Ben who had the hint of a smile on his face.

"So what's the deal with it?"

"That shouldn't happen that quickly. Like I said before, the signal could bounce of billions of other locations before it returns to here, however it doesn't; it keeps falling onto that specific spot…" He clicked the key a couple more times to show the image of an actual building, "…on this specific location.

"So to double check we weren't imagining things, we asked if the FBI technicians could create a piece of software that would list each IP address, and then sort of highlight the addresses that appeared more than once, and we managed to properly sort through them yesterday."

"And?"

"The results were astonishing, if you imagine that in 10 minutes the signal can bounce over one thousand addresses, then this one," he pointed at the screen, "would pop up perhaps 60, maybe 70 times."

"That sounds a little low though."

"Not compared to the other addresses in the system that appeared in that ten minute interval, the maximum one of the others got was two.

"We've consulted with the top men at the FBI, and they say this shouldn't be happening unless there was a hole in the Volturi's defense mechanism, something that they forgot that causes the signal to return to its original address. We got the address and ran it through all the files, and the FBI found in one of their resources, that the address matched an address of what appeared to be an abandoned building, usually homed to squatters, but has also been on the list of suspected hideouts of the Volturi, except they had no solid evidence to raid it."

"But it's here, in Chicago." I stated more to myself than Ben.

"Yes it is."

"But the van…?"

"Oh yeah, that, we discussed it with a few of our team, and that the only explanation is the van could have been a decoy. They could have dropped your wife off at this building, and then told them to keep driving. That way, when it would be found, yourself and the rest of the police would think their location was closer to the van, not that it's here in Chicago."

It made perfect sense, and the Volturi would love to have the police distracted. They could have timed the call as well to tie in with their van decoy. "Well this is brilliant, when do we go in?"

Ben hesitated, suddenly looking nervous, "The FBI's swat team left about 15 minutes ago, but they told me to inform you of this as they were leav-"

"Give me the address." I told him.

"They gave me orders not to tell you until they were given permission to raid the place…"

"Give me the damn address!"

He hurriedly turned around, grabbed a piece of paper, and scribbled down the address before handing it to me.

"What part of tell me as soon as you find out don't you understand!" I shouted, before running out of the room, through the corridors, ignoring Jasper's question of 'what's happening', straight out into the parking lot and got into one of the undercover police vehicles, but switching on the siren and the flashing lights.

My phone began ringing besides me, and I quickly answered it as I drove out of the station.

"_Edward what's happening?"_ Jasper said on the other end.

"They might have found a location on the Volturi's whereabouts, where Bella might be, but the FBI has gone and went ahead without me. Listen Jasper you need to do me a favour, I'm still on the main road outside of the station; you need to give me directions to the address of the building."

"_Alright, what's the place?"_

I read the address to him, and kept driving through the traffic, beeping the horn at anyone who wasn't moving out of the way, and trusting my instinct that I was at least going the right away.

"_Okay I've got it, and I've got your location on screen as well…" _motion detectors in every police vehicle, _"you need to get to the highway."_

"What way?"

"_Heading South, I'll tell you when to get off."_

I followed Jasper's directions, and I started to doubt whether we had gone the right way, but soon I saw it. There was no doubt about it; the dozens of vehicles outside the building was the obvious give-a-way.

I pulled in and got out of the car, slamming the door and about to head to the building, but a SWAT officer in full body-gear stepped in front of me and stopped me.

He must have known I was an officer from the car, "I'm sorry Detective, but only SWAT is allowed in until the building is cleared, and then Forensics are moving in immediately after."

"You've got to let me in, I'm Detective Cullen, I think I've got clearance."

"You're the one they're negotiating with? The girl's husband?"

"Yes I am, can I be let through?"

He looked hesitant, "I'm not sure, I'll radio through and ask, just hold on."

I started to fidget nervously. Bella could be in there right now, all it takes is one wrong move by one of the SWAT team and it could all be over.

My heart stopped beating when I saw the coroner's vehicle not too far away from us. My mind flashed back to the picture I was sent last night. I know he said she was alive but people who have been beaten up don't necessarily die immediately after the beating. I quickly turned back to the officer, "Why are the coroners here?" I asked frantically.

"The what?" He turned around to see what I was talking about. "Huh, there hasn't been a discovery of a body yet, it's just precautionary."

I breathed a sigh of relief, but I knew it would be short-lived. The building hadn't been completely cleared yet, I hope that they didn't need to use them.

The man seemed to be finishing up with a conversation with someone of higher authority on the radio, and then turned to me, "Sorry Detective," the man said, "I can't let you through, but we'll keep you up to date with the team in there."

"Fine." I said, it wasn't what I wanted, but I guess I just had to deal with it.

I was quite surprised that I hadn't heard any gunfire from inside the building. Either the SWAT team were keeping it in stealth mode, although I think that's highly unlikely, or for some strange reason, the Volturi were unarmed and this mass arrest was going strangely well, again, I think that's highly unlikely. So what the hell was going on?

The officer started to focus on whatever he was receiving in his earpiece.

"Copy that, I'll relay the message now over."

"Well, what is it? Is she in there?"

"The building's empty, there's not a person in sight." He told me.

"What? How is that possible? We've got the right building haven't we?"

"Oh it's the right building alright, the Intel wasn't wrong, it's just whoever was here left quite a while ago, and in a hurry as well. They've found various things that they think could be used for evidence; I heard that they may have found tire tracks that may match with that van that was found."

"That's not the point," I muttered to myself.

"Excuse me," the officer said, thinking I was talking to him.

"It's nothing, err, good job with this."

"Thanks Detective."

I turned away from him and walked back to the car. The point was the Volturi were possibly no longer in Chicago, maybe even the state. My one last hope came to a dead end, Bella looked severely injured, and the Volturi were calling again tomorrow.

_**The next day…**_

Despite searching the wrong place, it seemed the Volturi hadn't caught wind of our raid, which was lucky for us.

"How long is it?"

"We have 15 minutes Edward; you asked us this five minutes ago."

Unluckily for us, we were unable to find any other leads, and the Intel from the warehouse, half came to nothing half was still being scrutinised.

"I know, but can't you expect me to be a little nervous?"

"I thought you never got nervous?" Vincent asked, and I glared at him.

Which had now led me to this. The Volturi call and the ball was very much in their court. With no leverage, no plan to even let the leaders out of prison, our main plan was delay and lie.

"Look Edward, everything will be fine if you just do what we planned." Jacob said, "Come on, recap."

"Jacob…"

"Recap." He said sternly.

I sighed, "I go along with what they say, delay them for as long as possible so they can get a trace on their location, then we've got stations around the country on hold to attack once we've got it."

"What happens if they do something…I don't know…unexpected?" Vincent said, standing up from his leaning position against the desk.

"Then I'll improvise." I said in an obvious manner.

I turned around and started to pace the space in front of the area where I would have the video call.

"How long is it now?"

"Jeez Edward, 13 minutes."

I let out a deep breath and looked over to the set up of computers and other various pieces of technology that I hoped would lead me to Bella's location, and then I looked along the wires that led to the television and webcam where I would be sitting, and negotiating with the Volturi.

Part of their negotiation was that for this talk I had to be alone. They wanted me, and only me making the decisions, not someone in the background pointing me in the right direction. Plus, with them thinking I was alone, it reduced the idea of me tracing the call.

I couldn't sleep last night. To think I had thought I had come so close to finding Bella, and then it just came to such a complete dead end just really got to me. Made me think of how little we had done over the past month, I guess I relied too heavily on that final lead.

Plus the forensics and the FBI had been combing through that building all through the night and not found one piece of evidence that could tell us where they moved onto next. All they could do was match a set of tire tracks with burnt out van, and that was all. They had started to leave that building for a while, probably since they started to create this twisted plan of theirs, and made sure no loose strings were left behind.

"We're ready Edward, just waiting on them now, get yourself ready."

I sat down in the chair, staring at the blank screen that was due to show the Volturi spokesperson in just a few minutes.

I couldn't help but nervously run my hand through my hair as I just watched the other officers in the room run around making sure all the final things were in place and ready to start the tracking.

The closer it got the more my heart started to beat more heavily in my chest, as I started to realise how heavily my decision in the next few minutes could impact the country. I didn't want to think of what would happen to Bella right now, what one mistake could lead to.

I just had to delay them. That's all I had to do. Maybe make up a few lies so that they wouldn't call on any attacks, and hopefully, keep Bella alive.

I noticed people starting to sit down and take their places, and the room suddenly quietened down. It must be time.

"Ready Edward, the call is going to connect in 5…4…3…" He signalled the last two numbers with his fingers then pointed to me when the video finally connected, and the screen came to life before me.

I took a deep breath in. _Here we go._

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Sooooo I'm guessing you know what's coming up next... :P Review and you get a sneak peak :)<strong>

**Also, told you updates are going to be coming quicker now summer's here, and also, some good news, the next few chapters are already written :) I'm just not going to dish them out straight away though :)**

**Usual thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter, favourited or alerted the story :)**

**Thanks again**

**Jaimie x**


	24. Chapter 23

**Chapter 23**

**~~*~~  
>Edward's POV<br>~*~**

It seemed typical and cliché that he'd be kitted out in all black with a balaclava on. If it wasn't for the current situation I may have even laughed.

Instead it was silent between the two of us, neither of us deciding to break the silence first.

"Who's watching us?"

"It's just me." I answered, trying not to look at the staff just over the screen, I needed them to believe it was me otherwise I'd be screwed.

"You know why we called, it's time."

Straight to the point, I guess I would have to start my delaying. I took a breath in, running my hand through my hair again, "I know, it's just that-"

"Just what?!" He shouted, "Do I have to remind you what'll happen?"

I glared at him, "I know what the consequences of my actions will be." I growled.

"Are you sure? 'Cause I think you need to be reminded."

I watched as he gestured to someone off screen, and then suddenly I froze, as it seemed things had switched in their favor.

Another kitted out member had walked on screen, holding someone, I couldn't see who it was at first, but then they shoved them down to the floor by the man's feet, and when I saw her long brown hair, and her slender figure, and heard her wince when she was thrown to the floor,

I couldn't help but keep my eyes off her face as she slowly turned to face the screen, my breath caught in my throat as I looked at the fresh colours of bruises on her face.

When I managed to find my voice I spoke up. "Leave her out of this; she doesn't have to be here right now. Let it just be us two."

"You remember our deal don't you?" He asked innocently, as he pulled his gun out from behind him and pressed it to Bella's head.

I had never felt so helpless in my entire life.

As I looked at Bella before me, I began to regret any decisions I had made that had lead me to this situation, that lead me to become a detective, and that lead me to take _this stupid case_. It all inevitably lead to this moment, watching her on a screen, her skin battered and bruised, a gun pressed to her head. I could do nothing to help her right now but internally punish myself for being on this side of things. The side where it was safe, when instead it should be her, and I should be on the floor battered and bruised at the feet of a group of gang members with a gun pressed to my own forehead. What I would do to be able to swap positions.

All I could do was wait as patiently as I could for the other officers in the room to connect the video call, and track down the position of the whereabouts her kidnappers, and fortunately we must have made a successful connection, as I glanced quickly up over the TV where a partner of mine held up his hand with three fingers out. _3 minutes._

_Why do I get the feeling these are going to be three long minutes?_

The gun pressed more forcefully to her head, and her small whimper brought me back to the present. I ran my hand through my hair nervously and forced myself to look away from her face back into the menacing face of the sick person who decided to take her.

"So, has it been completed?" The voice said from behind the mask.

"No, I need more time." I answered as I looked down to my Bella's face. I hope she knew I was doing all I could to find her.

"Well you don't have more time, we said a month, and a month is nearly up."

The guy behind the television rotated his hand in a circular motion to tell me to keep the conversation going.

"I…I know that, but something like this doesn't take a month, and I'm just one man, I can't supply you with what you want in that amount of time."

"Well tough luck, it's either a month or…" he pushed Bella forward closer to the screen, grabbed her hair to tilt her head back and then pressed the gun under her chin, "…your little mate will suffer the consequences."

"No!" I shouted, standing up from my seat.

"What?" he said calmly as he brought the gun back and smacked it across her head causing her body to fall slightly to the side. My fist clenched by my side as I watched some blood trickle down her skin, "Do you want to reconsider that answer? Don't think I won't do it." She lifted her hand up and placed it gently to her head and winced slightly, but her eyes pleaded with me to just follow the orders, to not make things worse for myself.

"Okay, but please," I looked directly into the man's eyes, "Give me an extra day or two, to make sure everything is finalised and in place."

Through the slits in the balaclava, I could see his eyes were slightly apprehensive as he thought over my extra proposal. Whilst he was thinking, I took another chance to look back up to the group of men who were finding the location to see them bustling around each other, and looking intently on the screen as the possible location got closer and closer to where my wife was. The man lifted his hand up again but showing 1 single finger.

_ 1 minute left,_ _not long now._

Unfortunately, my subtle attempt wasn't so subtle, and the man on the screen had his head cocked to one side and asked, "What are you looking at?"

I looked back down to the screen and tried my best to cover it up, "What? Nothing, I'm nervous that's all, you've got my wife as a hostage before my very eyes." As I mentioned the word wife I saw Bella smile slightly. I'm sure she was slightly shocked to hear me regard her as my wife, but I felt like right now we had to be together, as one.

The man nodded slowly once, as if he didn't truly believe my answer, and he opened his mouth to say something when one of the officers behind the screen shouted, "Triangulating position, estimated time 30 seconds."

My breathing stopped and the officer realised his mistake as the whole room was suddenly silent. I kept my eyes facing the screen whilst mentally hoping he hadn't heard we were tracking their position.

"What was that?" He shouted, "Are you tracking us?" He pulled Bella back to him and pushed the gun's barrel into her temple, "Call it off now otherwise I'll shoot her!"

"20 seconds left Detective." The officer shouted again, knowing now there was no point in keeping quiet knowing the kidnappers knew what we were doing.

"Do it!" The man shouted, pushing the gun harder against her head.

I looked at Bella whose eyes were glistening as she fought with herself not to cry. Her eyes met mine, and in that moment the kidnapper's shouts and the noise of the officers in the room seemed to quiet down and become simple background noise.

"You have till the count of three to call it off." He demanded once again.

"10 seconds left Edward." The officer called out.

"One…." The man started.

"Look, stop, please, if you kill her we won't help you anymore." The man moved his gun from Bella's head briefly to point at the floor where the gun shot into the floor a few inches away from Bella's legs.

"Two…" He continued, pressing the now burning gun into Bella's neck were she cried from the burn of the barrel. Her body now starting to shake from sobs she could no longer hold in.

"Please, for the love of God, please don't do this," I kept my voice calm to try and reason with him, but my own body started to shake, as I realised I was crying also. "Please don't." I pleaded, as my sobs became heavier and I looked down, ashamed for not being the strong person right now.

"Edward?" A small, fragile voice spoke up, and my head lifted quickly to see Bella looking at me with love and somehow even pride, even though she knew I had let her down. "I love you." She whispered, her hand lifting up slightly as if she was going to reach out for me.

Despite the situation I couldn't help but smile. I placed my hand on the screen where I imagined she would have placed hers and responded, "I love you too." I whispered back, meaning it completely. She smiled at me, and then her eyes closed as if she expected what was going to happen.

"Three." The man said and the last thing I heard was a gun being fired and then there was blackness.

"No!" I screamed, standing up and moving myself closer to the television, hitting it and shaking it, moving the webcam, anything just to bring the image back.

I continued staring at the now black screen, but in my mind I continued to replay Bella's image, her smiling to me, her saying that she _loves _me. I clenched my eyes shut as I now thought of the past tense, that she _loved _me. It didn't feel right, I was numb. Knowing she was dead should have ripped my heart into pieces, and then scattered them into different places.

I was still in denial. She couldn't be dead. Bella shouldn't die, she can't have. I won't believe it.

I started to fiddle with the wires on the television and webcam, desperately trying to reconnect the feed, but my hopes slowly started to fade when it didn't return. I didn't want to admit to myself that she was gone, that I had just watched her be murdered before my very eyes.

Just thinking those words started the pain in my chest, so I took in a breath to ease it, but it was staggered, and I noticed in the reflection on the screen I could see that I was crying, the tears were trickling down my cheeks.

The ache was starting to build, and my earlier denial seemed to evaporate as my body started to accept her death, even though my mind wouldn't.

"You can't be dead." I whispered, "You can't be."

I heard someone walk up behind me and I felt them place a hand on my shoulder. I stood up and shook it off, and looked into Jasper's face. His was hurt as well, Bella and Jasper had been friends, but although he knew I was feeling a lot worse, I didn't want his sympathy right now.

All the pain I was feeling quickly changed into anger. The tears stopped flowing down my face and my fists clenched by my sides as I turned to face the other people in the room.

They were all silent, and I didn't need to be a mind reader to know they were all feeling sorry for me, but no one wanted to be the first one to break the silence.

I strode up to the desks furiously, watching them cower back slightly as I looked at them with a deathly expression on my face.

"Tell me we got their location." I growled to one of the people sitting at the desks where they were tracing the video call. And now, if they tell me where they are, I was going to drive there myself and kill each son of a bitch for taking away the person I love.

She looked quite guarded, as if she didn't want to tell me what they knew, but I didn't have time for this crap.

I slammed my hands down onto the desk as I leaned over her and stared her in the eye. "Did we get their location?" I asked again.

She shook her head, "I'm sorry; when they cut the feed we lost their location." She answered.

And just like that my hopes died once more and my head bowed down as I gave up. But I needed to know one more thing before I returned to the pain and grief.

"Who was it?" I asked, and I knew they understood what I was asking. I wanted to know who shouted out the time left to trace the video call whilst I was live, and ultimately led to this situation now.

The room was silent as they looked around to the various faces in the room.

"Edward?" Someone said from besides me, and I looked up to see Vincent standing nervously at the back, wringing his hands together. I stood up straight as he made his way around the desks and towards me, and I didn't fail to notice that he was trying to keep his distance away from me.

"I'm so sorry man, I didn't mean to call out like that, I just got excited when I saw how much time was left and-"

I suddenly cut him off by grasping his shirt within my hands, twisting him around and pushing him into a nearby wall roughly, my hands still pushing into his chest as I glared at him.

"Excited? You were excited? Did you not even think in that tiny brain of yours to think of the consequences of what you were doing?" I pulled him back briefly just to push him back harder into the wall, "Do you realise what you've done?!" I shouted, and before I realised what I was doing I pulled my hand back and punched him in the face.

There were gasps from my colleagues behind me, and I was sure some others were about to attempt to stop me, but all I could see was red. Bella's tear-stained face appeared in my mind and I punched him again. The firing of a gun and the blacked-out screen and I punched him again.

Logically, I knew he hadn't been the one who murdered Bella, but right now all the blame, for shouting out during the talk and affecting the whole thing, was being aimed at him. My anger was being unleashed upon him, and right now it dulled the pain in my heart, knowing I was hurting someone who in effect has now hurt me.

My arm lifted for a forth punch, but it was held back and I felt my body be dragged away from Vincent. He collapsed against the wall holding his now bloody face, and his stomach.

"Edward stop it, you're not thinking straight." I heard Jasper say as I was pulled away. My eyes were still fixed on Vincent's, and somehow I just wanted to hit him again for what he's done.

Jasper had managed to drag me to my office, and I ignored the scared, sympathetic and disappointed looks from my colleagues as I got there. I knew without a doubt what my actions right now have caused.

Jasper shut the door behind us, but I tried to get past him. In my opinion Vincent should be in far more pain.

"Edward, just stop and think about what you're doing. Vincent isn't at fault here."

"Like hell he isn't." I said as I struggled against him.

"You're in pain and you're angry. And straight after what's happened I can understand why you would want to vent out all your anger."

"You understand do you? Bella's dead Jasper!"

He closed his eyes and answered calmly, "I know that Edward, but you need to calm yourself down. The Volturi have screwed up now, they don't have their bargaining chip to use against us-"

I quickly turned around and swept everything off my desk, sending things crashing to the floor, in another fit of anger that I didn't want to be unleashed at Jasper. I turned back around to face him. "Bella was not just some bargaining chip!" I shouted at him, "She never should have been involved with all of this!"

Jasper took a glance over his shoulder, through the windows that were my walls in my office, and I could see everyone still watching me. He walked over and closed the blinds to stop them from looking in.

I didn't speak again; just stared at a spot on the floor as I tried to focus on what emotions were trying to take over me – anger or sorrow. Either way, I was still tense with my fists clenched by my sides, trying to take calming breathes. But then I think of Bella and my fists clenched tighter.

"Look Edward, I think you need some time alone to think over this." Jasper said, and I looked up at him. I could see his eyes brimming with tears, and it just reminded me that Bella was also a good friend of Jasper, best friends with his fiancé. I don't even know what this will do to Alice, and I know back home after the upsetting news, I'll have a beating from Emmett.

I should have thought of who this will effect as well, and here I am taking my anger out on Jasper, which he doesn't deserve, yet is taking it in calmly because he is such a good friend.

I simply nodded, and he walked out of the room, the door shutting quietly behind him. But now, with nothing to release my anger on, all the pain and sorrow returned to me in a rush of emotions. My chest started to heave, and my legs were weak beneath me. I slowly sunk down to the floor, my back sliding against my desk as I crumbled. My hands moved from covering my face to my hair and grabbing the ends tightly.

I turned my head slightly and my eyes caught sight of a photo frame lying face down on the floor. I wiped my eyes and shuffled over to the photo, lifting it up from the floor, a few small pieces of glass falling from it.

It was the photo of all of us together; Bella, Mason, and myself, all smiling happily at the camera. My fingers traced two large cracks that split the glass. One crack zigzagged across Mason's face, whilst the other split Bella's face in half, leaving the only part of the glass still in tact was my face. I couldn't help but think this symbolised my life at this moment. Cracks that have shattered my life, leaving me broken and in pieces, and the two most important people in my life, were now gone.

The photo dropped to the floor as my body started to shake from sobs, tears flowing freely down my face, as I broke down on the floor of my office.

.

.

.

I don't think it had been long since I busted up Riozzi's face and made a mess of my office.

Apart from Jasper, no one else had come in to check on me, which I was thankful, especially because if Taylor would have come to see me I would have been in a load of trouble.

I hadn't moved from my spot on the floor, just stared at the wall until I heard a knock on my door.

"What?" I said harshly to the guy as he stepped into my office.

His eyes glanced over the mess and then cleared his throat as he took another step closer to me.

"Erm…Eric and I discovered something, and we thought that it might be useful for you."

I pushed myself off the floor. "Is my wife really dead?"

"What...erm...Sir I'm not sure what you mean."

"Are you here to tell me that my wife is actually alive?"

"No sir, but-"

"Then right now your information is useless to me."

"I'm sorry Detective but I think you should take a look at what we got."

"Fine." I said reluctantly and took the file out of his hands and leant back against the desk.

"What Emma forgot to mention earlier is that although we never got an exact location we still managed to get a general location."

"You do realise that if this general location isn't smaller than a small area of blocks then your information is still useless." I looked up from the closed file to his face. There was a bit of a smile there.

"We managed to narrow it down to one area." He nodded at me to open the file. On the first page was a satellite photo.

"Where's this?"

"A part of Seattle, Washington." He said proudly.

"This is good but it's still far too big, it would take weeks to do a search and by then we know the Volturi would have moved on."

"Turn the page." He ordered and so I turned the sheet. "Once we realised it was in Seattle I done a little bit of background research, anything from other departments that might help us.

"I discovered that a year ago, the police department had been keeping track on a building they believed to belong to the Volturi."

I looked up to him. "Go on."

"The police managed to get a raid on the place, but once they found nothing the Volturi gave them some sort of lawsuit, stops them from even looking at the house it's that strong. That's why it wasn't considered as a possible location when your wife was, erm, kidnapped.

"However, I still managed to get a location on the place and guess what?" He moved forward and showed another sheet with the same satellite image, but it was zoomed in and a circle had been drawn around a building. "It's in the same area."

I stood up straight quickly and looked closer at the image. Was this the place where the Volturi had been hiding? The place where Bella had been? Where she had died?

There was one final check I could do to see if it could be the place.

I stepped over all of the debris I had thrown to the floor, and over to my weather report, the map that was filled with markings of which cities had a thunderstorm. I looked over to Seattle, and the big circle that was highlighted around it. Which meant it had had thunder, which meant this could definitely be the place. My fists clenched around the piece of paper.

"I put in a set of directions from the airport to the warehouse in the back of the file." He added shyly.

"What?"

"You're a great detective Cullen, and frankly what the Volturi did is unforgivable. If it was me I would want revenge."

"I'm sorry but I think you've mistaken my intentions."

"I'm not mistaken Sir, I think we both know what you're going to do. That's why I haven't told anyone else about this information."

I studied this man for a second. "What's your name?" I asked.

"Newton. Mike Newton."

"Well you're crazy Newton. I think you'd be a good match for Jessica." I shook my head at the sheets in my hand. "What do you expect me to do? Go down to Seattle and hurt as many people as I can before everyone else arrives."

He nodded. "Pretty much, yeah. I'll give you a head start and everything, won't tell this lot for about an hour or so."

I shook my head again at this nonsense, but my mind was thinking something else.

"No, not an hour, a bit longer than that. How long do you reckon it takes to fly to Seattle? 4 hours? 5 maybe? If you tell the others in an hour they'll be on the phone to the department up in Seattle and have them go to the place before I even get through security. No, wait a few hours, and then tell them."

"So you're actually going through with this?"

I grabbed my jacket from the back of my chair and my gun from my desk. "Nothing's going to stop me."

.

.

.

_**5 hours later…**_

I was lucky Mike had called the rental place up in Seattle as I would have been screwed arriving at the airport and then not having transport. Plus the fact there was a spare seat on a flight that was leaving in just under half an hour was also really lucky.

Also, I'm guessing from the Aston Martin I'm driving right now, Mike knew I meant business.

I had been driving for about thirty minutes and had already got myself lost by now and it frustrated the hell out of me.

I'm sure Mike would be telling the others about the Volturi's location, if not already. I was expecting some sort of call from Jasper or Taylor either to inform me or yell at me instead.

When my phone rang from besides me, I quickly gathered who it would be.

"Cullen speaking."

"Edward where the hell are you?" Jasper called, "There's been a major breakthrough in the case and we need you at the station."

"A major breakthrough in which the location of the Volturi is in a warehouse in Seattle."

"Yes…wait how did you know about it? Did Riozzi already call you? Do you know where he is by the way-?"

"No, Riozzi didn't tell me, and no I don't know where he is." I quickly dodged a car which beeped at me as I sped past.

"Where are you Edward? The Volturi got back in touch with us but they won't speak to us, only you."

"Oh don't worry; I'm going to speak to them."

"Good, now where about are you?"

"About a five hour flight away."

"What? Edward you're confusing me."

"Mike told me about the location of the Volturi a couple of hours ago, I'm in Seattle. I'm at the place now so I've got to go; I'll speak to you later."

"Edward wai-" I cut him off before he could say anything more and put my phone on the seat.

The building was pretty big, from the outside it just looked like office space, with a big garage and there were a couple of cars outside. I skid the car into park and just looked at the building doing nothing.

Her killers were in there.

Her lifeless body was still in the hands of those bastards.

I ran a hand through my hair hoping Mike had done something extra for me which might have been nearly impossible.

I couldn't take my gun on the plane for obvious reasons, and if I would have even tried it would just mean wasting my time in security and trying to explain things.

Mike just said leave it up to him, but unless he could get me some guns right now I was in a bit of trouble.

I looked around the car and my eyes fell on the glove-box. I quickly leaned over and opened it, expecting a pair of handguns but instead there was a note.

_Look in the trunk._

Without a second thought I had got out the car and was making my way to the boot of the car. I pressed the button on the key chain and it opened leaving me with my mouth open, and a need to give Mike Newton a raise.

.

.

.

I didn't know who I was looking for when I entered the building, but it wasn't long before the alarms were going off and I was being fired at.

Right now I was caught in crossfire with a few desks acting as my cover. I fired back to both sides to try and reduce the firing but it just continued. It wasn't good that I was only on the first floor and I was already more or less trapped.

I could risk moving across the open space and get better cover, but there was a large chance I would get shot.

I ducked when I heard a few bullets firing above my head.

_Think dammit._

I fired back another shot and was lucky when I heard someone cry out.

It wouldn't take long though before the rest of the gang in this building come down to deal with me, if they haven't already escaped.

I fired a few more shots down the corridor and when I ran out of ammo I sat back down and looked around for an easier way out as I reloaded.

My eyes stopped on a sign that had been right in front of me saying **'Storage.'**

_How did you not notice that before?_

I could vaguely remember there being a few signs leading to storage. _This place _is_ a warehouse._

I started firing some shots as cover and darted in the direction of the sign, leading me down a corridor with no one in.

I could hear people start to give chase behind me, and was lucky to see another 'Storage' sign, pointing to a door right next to it.

I hoped that when I opened this door it led to an empty room rather than a tiny storage closet with a few brooms and a few cleaning products.

I tried the handle and was fortunate it was unlocked. I pulled on the handle and opened it enough to squeeze through, and closed it gently without it slamming. I wonder if I was out of view and they couldn't see me entering because that would buy me a lot of time.

Once in I breathed a sigh of relief to see it as a large room found in a warehouse, stacks of crates were piled around the room along with other objects I couldn't make out.

I stood up and locked the door behind me and tried to look for another way out apart from the doors behind me.

I groaned when I noticed a large double door on the opposite side of the room wide open leaving anyone who ran past a chance to see me and trap me in a dead end.

I checked for any other doors but just saw that one so I decided against my better judgement to make my way over to them.

I raised my gun just incase and slowly made my way over, my eyes glancing to the other doors and the main entrance used for vehicles so no one else burst up on me, or the cops arrive and ram down the door.

A pair of high-heels clicking over the stone surface startled me and I turned quickly to face the open doors with my gun raised.

"Stop or I'll shoot." I shouted to the woman as she continued to walk towards me. I stepped forward and threatened again. "Stop or I will shoot you."

Eventually she stopped and the light entering into the main warehouse casted off of something in her hand. She did no movement to raise the gun, but I was far more wary.

"Detective Cullen," The woman purred, "I would say it's nice to meet you but from what you have done I don't feel like saying that."

She tilted her head and the light reflected off the red in her hair.

"I'm sorry do I know you?"

"You killed my fiancé." She suddenly growled and I tightened my grip on the gun in case she was about to try something.

"I'm sorry but I'm not sure who you're talking about."

"See, that just sums up everything about you Detective Cullen. You care for yourself and your job and you don't care who you hurt along the way. James was trying to save us, yet you shot at him, and you shot and you shot, and you never stopped till he was finally on the floor bleeding and breathing his last."

My mind flashed to the moment in the Volturi house, the crazy man with his gun raised running towards me with his fierce expression, the guns firing and I raising my own in defence.

Back in the warehouse, through the dim light I could still see the glistening on her cheek where a tear must have fell. Her arm finally rose and she aimed the gun at me.

"Put the gun down." I ordered. "I'm sorry for your loss but revenge isn't the best way."

The woman started laughing hysterically. "You detective are one to talk, you hypocrite!" She suddenly shouted at the end of the sentence. "Coming here to get your revenge for the death of your little Bella."

The muscles in my arms tightened and my hands clenched around the gun.

"It wasn't even Laurent who shot the gun." She said, and I was confused, but then she whispered, "Shall I tell you what her face was like when I pulled the trigger?" She smiled a menacing smile and I quickly pulled the hammer back on my gun so I could shoot.

"Leave it Cullen." Someone shouted from behind me and I recognised their voice. "I've got you."

I heard footsteps from besides me and glanced my head a little to the side to see Riozzi step up beside me with his own gun raised. His face had bruised nicely.

"Riozzi? What the hell are you doing here? How did you get here so fast?"

"I'll tell you later. Everyone else is on the way though."

"Is the door you came through locked?" I saw him nod and then I put my attention on the woman.

Knowing she was outnumbered, she lowered the gun to her side.

"Now drop it on the floor." I growled, the anger still running through me that this person, this woman in front of me was the one who pulled the trigger, who was the one to kill Bella.

"As well as self-centred, I think you're a little bit ignorant Detective."

"Shut up and drop the gun." I said through clenched teeth.

"Don't you see Detective, did your little Police force not notice."

I glanced over to Vincent confused but he just shrugged his shoulders.

She laughed again. "We had a guy undercover in your department." She stated and continued to laugh, "He was right under your nose."

I stood there confused for a second, wondering if she was a bluffing, when I heard Vincent move from besides me. I turned my head a little and muttered a few profanities under my breath.

Vincent had turned to his side and had his gun pointed to my head.

"What are you doing Vincent?" I asked, my gun still trained on the woman in front of me.

"The name's not Vincent." He said, "The name's Riley Biers, now drop the gun."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Soooo, how many of you thought something was up with him? I know a couple of people did, this was the reason why I couldn't say anything in the PM's back to you :P So now, can you think back to anything in the story that makes a bit more sense to you now? If you want, have a look back, see if you spot any of the hints now :)<strong>

**Thanks to those who reviewed/alerted/favourite :) Makes me happy :)**

**Usual sneak peek to anyone who reviews this chapter :) **

**Thanks,**

**Jaimie xx**


	25. Chapter 24

**Chapter 24**

"What? Vincent what the hell are you doing?"

"I said drop the gun Cullen." He ordered, pulling the hammer back on his gun.

Unable to do anything else, I threw the gun down onto the floor and held my hands up.

"Now get on your knees."

"Riozzi…"

"Just do it!"

I got down on my knees like he said. "Don't want you getting any clever ideas Cullen."

"Vincent…"

"It's not Vincent, my name is Riley Biers. Vincent Riozzi was a cover up."

I looked at him in astonishment. "How did you manage to do this?"

"Simple really, I mean we are the Volturi, it's not that difficult when you see a man from New York apply for a job at the police department with the very Detective that is trying to put us all away. It was a chance we couldn't give up.

"So we chose someone who looked similar, i.e. me, learned their details, and then got some of our guys down in NYC to deal with the real guy."

He started to pace slowly, moving in an arc around me. "I mean I managed to get behind the scenes; you had a Volturi guard posing as a cop and no one had a bloody clue. See, if you were to search for a Vincent Riozzi properly, or more recently I should say, you would find that he was killed just over a month ago in New York!

"So with you all clueless I could get my background info, I could see how far along you were getting in the case and tell the others if they needed to be careful or sort a certain witness out."

I thought back over the time when Vincent, or should I say Riley, joined us. How much had he sabotaged right under our noses?

"So when there was that lead in the case, and you were supposed to tell me..." I asked.

"I was purposefully delaying it to see if we could avoid it."

"And the night of the arrests?"

"Please," He scoffed, "I basically pointed to which car you were in." He laughed.

"And when they found out about the calls with Bella?"

"In fairness she did warn you not to say anything in the department, there was a valid reason." He pointed to himself, and I realised now how his reaction to the news of me talking with Bella, was more in the view of a Volturi informant. Thinking back to his innocent 'it wasn't me' excuse, made me feel sick.

"Oh, and don't forget the person who 'gave you away' a few hours ago." He smirked at the sudden anger that he could probably see on my face. "Don't worry though, they already knew about the tracing," he pointed to himself, "the whole 'are you tracking us' was just good acting I reckon."

I felt like an idiot. He had been playing us from the very start. Even remembering now, when they sent in that video clip and called me, they had rung on Vincent's…Riley's phone. How did I miss all of this?

"Bet you're feeling like a proper dumb ass right now," He smirked at me, and then he took a step closer, the smile disappeared and there was a flash of anger behind his eyes, "But you had to go and fuck everything up didn't you." And with that he pulled his left arm back and punched me in the face.

My face turned to the side from the force of the hit; I could taste the blood in my mouth straight away. I spat out the bit of blood that had pooled into my mouth and turned back to him.

"Your three leaders had no choice but to go into prison."

"I don't give a fuck about those three!" He shouted, "They don't care about us, don't care who gets killed at their expense."

"Well what is it then Riley?"

"You killed my brother!" He shouted again, his face merely inches away from my own, "My little brother," he said more quietly, stepping back from me, "Vic's fiancé," He said, pointing at the red-headed woman whose expression had saddened suddenly, "he wasn't even supposed to be there that night, and then...and then I find out a few hours later on the fucking news that he was dead whilst sitting next to his very murderer, and I had to keep a straight face, pretend that nothing was bothering me, and restrain myself from killing you whilst you slept!"

He stepped forward again suddenly and punched me in the face, the force of it sending me to the floor.

Riley turned back around and stepped back, shaking his hand as he went.

"Riley, calm yourself down, you'll end up killing him." The woman, Victoria mentioned, loud enough for me to hear.

"Why shouldn't I Vic?! This is the man that killed James! This guy, no one else!"

"Yes I know," she growled through clenched teeth, "but I want him to suffer, I don't want him dead."

Riley huffed in annoyance, "We don't have time for your petty revenge, the police will be on there way, we could end this now."

She shook her head, "No, we are doing it my way, I've already told Royce to get her."

"Get who?" I asked, confused at who they were talking about.

"You know it was quite fortunate that we got your wife as our bargaining chip, because that just killed two birds with one stone for us."

"As soon as we knew it was you that killed him, and that it was her we were going to use, it was just another chance that the two of us couldn't pass up." Victoria added.

"You see we weren't going to follow the original rules," Riley continued, "we wanted our own revenge, we didn't care about the 'Brothers', you killed my brother, you ruined Vic's future, so what better than to kill the one person you love in return."

I could feel my muscles tighten and my fists clench at this news.

"The whole divorce thing," Victoria interrupted, "loads of bullshit."

"I mean you had us panicked for a moment when we realised you two had broken up." I remembered the momentary shock he had on his face after the phone call when he realised we were no longer together.

"Whole load of bullshit." Victoria repeated. "Oh 'I love you', 'I love you too," She said in a high pitched imitation voice, then she started laughing, "Looks like we were lucky that you two changed your minds otherwise Laurent would have shot her there and then and we would have been screwed."

"For God's sake you got your fucking revenge!" I shouted, "You killed her and I'm fucking devastated, what else do you want from me?!"

The two of them never answered, and I looked down to the ground so they never saw the tear that was about to fall. I could see the open doors at the other end of the room, but there was no way I would make it out alive. There was a chance I could postpone the time until the police got here, but with Riley playing his part, there might be a longer delay than I would have estimated.

As I considered this, a woman ran across the face of the doorway, a brunette. Apart from being thankful that she never noticed and made this situation worse, she reminded me of Bella, that didn't help either.

Instead of having a mini emotional breakdown, I noticed that Victoria had looked over to Riley confused.

"He doesn't know?"

A look of understanding then crossed her face and she smiled down on me.

"Well this just makes things more fun."

I looked between the two of them, wondering what it was that I didn't know.

"How long did you say Royce would be?" Riley asked.

"I didn't, but he should have been here by now."

"Good, I'll be glad to see his reaction; I didn't have a good view back in the station."

"Have a good view of what? What the hell are you talking about?"

Riley turned and faced me, "You don't get to speak." He shouted at me, hitting me across the face again.

"We're talking about the fact your precious little wifey…" Victoria continued, "…isn't actually dead."

"Aww Vic why did you have to ruin the surprise." Riley complained.

"What?" I asked, my throat suddenly a lot drier.

Riley looked down on me and started laughing, "This is great."

"No one shot your wife; you just assumed she was dead."

I never answered them; thoughts were just streaming around my head, what happened back in the station, what I saw on the video flashed before my eyes. Could she really be alive? Or were these two just messing with my head?

**~~*~~**  
><strong>Bella's POV<strong>  
><strong>~*~<strong>

**_6 hours earlier…_**

Sleep hadn't come to me that night, and I rolled over restlessly in some attempt to fall asleep. However it didn't happen and I was left alone in the darkness of the room with just my thoughts to comfort me, although they were full of worry and fear and didn't help me staying calm.

I knew it wasn't evening, or early morning for that matter, but as long as I was shut up in this room I might as well sleep and recover.

As I wasn't tired, I stared up into the darkness of the room, not even able to see a few inches in front of my face. I heard a couple of footsteps in the hallway outside my room along with some quiet conversation that I could just barely make out.

"…well if what he says is true shouldn't we do something about the police tracking us?" A first voice said, one that I didn't recognise but assumed it must be one of the many gang members.

"There's nothing we can really do, but hope that he does something to stop them from finding our location." The second voice replied, and I recognised it as Laurent's.

"And what about the girl, what are we going to do with her if he disagrees?" The footsteps stopped and I realised they were now outside my room.

"Then we will deal with her the way we said we would." Laurent replied, followed by a rustling of keys as I heard him unlock the door and open it. Light from the hallway streamed in and caused me to shut my eyes quickly with the contrasting levels of light changing so quickly.

I put my hand in front of my face to try and shield some of the light out of my eyes, and saw the two men standing at the door. Laurent stepped aside as the other man walked into the room and made his way towards me. He was tall, a large build, black hair, and wearing all black, with a sidearm on his belt. He grabbed me roughly by the arm and pulled me up.

I stumbled a bit but regained my balance and turned to Laurent, who smiled and said "It's time." He moved aside and gestured for us to walk past him. The guy next to me pulled me roughly again but I held back and said "I'm capable of walking." He looked over to Laurent and then back to me, releasing his tight grip on my arm, but then pushing me hard in the shoulder for me to start walking.

I left the room and followed Laurent to somewhere else in the building.

As we walked I was confused with what was happening at the moment, and why he needed me right now. The walk was quite long wherever we were going, but the people I passed, who I believed to be members of this gang, all had this odd look of excitement on their faces, and when they saw me it just seemed to boost their excitement.

We stopped suddenly outside a door and Laurent opened it and walked in. The guy behind me pushed me again and I stumbled, but this time tripping over something on the floor and falling. Various members snickered at my clumsiness and I slowly pulled myself up off of the floor, the fall just adding to the pain of my other various bruises.

Someone came over and helped me to my feet, looking up I noticed it was Rosalie. She was still alive! She looked badly beaten; I was surprised I had recognised her. But they must still see her as valuable otherwise she would have been killed for her treason against the Volturi.

I was tempted to smile at the fact she was here but the look on her face just increased my worry. Her face seemed emotionless, but her eyes showed the same worry and fear I must have been feeling, however I didn't know what for, and she did.

"What's happening?" I whispered, low enough for no one else to have heard me except her. She just shook her head and stepped away from me. It was then that I noticed she was also dressed in black, as was everyone else in the room.

I turned around briefly to see what caused me to fall, and noticed a bunch of wires. My eyes followed the wires to a bunch of televisions, phones, lights, and a video recorder in the middle of the room. I swallowed nervously as I began to have an idea of what was supposed to happen.

The man pushed me again and led me to a clear area in front of a large television screen, a camcorder was on top.

"Masks on." Laurent ordered and I watched as each person simultaneously pulled on their balaclavas, including Rosalie, who gave me one last sad look before pulling her mask over her head.

Laurent, well I thought it was Laurent, moved in front of me to adjust the camera then turned back around to me and ordered me to kneel on the floor. I done what he said and looked up to the TV which switched on and an image of me came up on the screen.

I moved my hand slightly and it mirrored my movements on the screen.

"Move it so it can just see me, keep her out of sight for now." Laurent said as I was moved just to the side of Laurent. Someone else fixed the camera and Laurent nodded and said "Change the channel and make the call."

A black figure moved and went over to one of the phones whilst another moved to a computer.

Laurent kneeled behind me and whispered in my ear, "This is live, not a recording, but a video call." I looked back up to the television where the screen no longer had us but a black image. "You are not to say a word, nothing about any of us otherwise there will be serious consequences."

He stood back up and I noticed from the corner of my eye him lowering his handgun so it was close to my head.

The guy by the phones finished the call and said, "He said they're finishing, and just need us to connect them."

"Well connect them" Laurent said exasperated. I heard him move behind me and I assumed he was moving into position.

The man by the computer signalled a count down of three with his fingers, the room filled with a sudden silence and tension. My eyes looked back to the screen where it started to flicker and then finally an image came to the screen.

The breath caught in my throat as I looked at the person at the other end of the video call. I felt so relieved to see him on the screen, live, right there in front of me, but something troubled me. He looked the same, yet different at the same time. His bronze hair was in its usual disarray, but it looked like he had run his hand through it many times from nervousness or being worried.

His emerald eyes looked through the screen, but they were surrounded by dark circles from lack of sleep, and his eyes seemed to have lost their sparkle, and all I could see was the fury he felt.

Although he was still handsome, he looked in a terrible state and I wondered if even after what he said to me over the divorce, he still felt some of the feelings for me and was worried over my kidnapping.

It was silent until Laurent spoke from behind me. "Who's watching us?"

"It's just me." Edward answered, and it was as though there was no hope in his voice, that he was giving up.

"You know why we called, it's time."

Edward ran his hand through his hair, "I know, it's just that-"

"Just what?!" He shouted from behind me. Edward remained silent and Laurent spoke again, "Do I have to remind you what'll happen?"

"I know what the consequences of my actions will be." Edward growled through clenched teeth.

"Are you sure? 'Cause I think you need to be reminded." When he said that he must have nodded to one of the other guys, as they made their way over to me, pulled me up by my arm just to push me back down to the floor by Laurent's feet.

I winced in pain as the impact from hitting the floor caused my other injuries to strain. But then I remembered Edward was watching me, and I turned slowly to face the TV. Edward's eyes were wide and full of fear as he looked at me.

"Leave her out of this; she doesn't have to be here right now. Let it just be us two."

Something cold pressed to my head and I tried to turn but Laurent had put his hand on my shoulder and had a firm grasp on me. In the corner of my eye I saw what he had pressed to my head; his handgun was now aimed at my head. "You remember our deal don't you?" He asked innocently, showing his own answer of 'no' to Edward's previous statement, and I watched as Edward tensed up. I briefly noticed him looking away from the screen but ignored it.

Laurent pushed the barrel of the gun more forcefully into my temple, and caused me to whimper in pain. "So, has it been completed?" Laurent asked again, pushing me forward slightly to remind him.

"No, I need more time." Edward answered, his voice held a hint of pleading as he looked back down to me.

"Well you don't have more time, we said a month, and a month is nearly up."

_A month_? Has it really been that long? And then I remembered why I was here, and I felt stupid not realising it earlier. I just thought the deal would be sorted behind the scenes, rather than live on television.

"I…I know that, but something like this doesn't take a month, and I'm just one man, I can't supply you with what you want in that amount of time."

"Well tough luck, it's either a month or…" he suddenly grabbed my hair painfully and pulled it back tilting my head back. The cool metal of the gun moved from my temple to under my chin. "…your little mate will suffer the consequences."

I tried to look at the screen from my uncomfortable position, and was able to see Edward getting up out of his chair in despair. "No!"

"What?" Laurent said calmly. Suddenly the metal of the gun wasn't pressed to my head and my hair was released. But the moment I thought he had left me alone, I was hit powerfully with the gun to the side of my head. A sharp pain ran through my face, and I was knocked to the floor. I pulled myself up slowly and pressed my hand carefully against my head where it stung on contact. I winced and then I felt something wet trickling down my cheek. I looked back to my hand to see a red liquid on my hand, added with a mixture of rust and salt entering my nose and I knew immediately that I was bleeding.

I looked back up to the screen were Edward was tense, and looked like he was ready to kill someone. I didn't want him to get into more trouble so I tried to plead with him using my eyes. He must have understood as I saw him relax ever so slightly.

"Do you want to reconsider that answer?" Laurent asked again. "Don't think I won't do it."

"Okay, but please, give me an extra day or two, to make sure everything is finalised and in place."

Edward was trying to buy more time, and he was pleading with them to give it to them. Behind the screen, one of the other men stood up and held the phone to his chest, he whispered quickly over to Laurent, "Riley says there tracking down our position, he'll try and stop it though."

Edward's eyes flickered above the screen another time. _What is he waiting for?_

"What are you looking at?" Laurent asked. I was confused at first but he must have seen Edward looking away as well. Either that or he was taking advantage of the extra knowledge the other guy just told him.

"What? Nothing, I'm nervous that's all, you've got my wife as a hostage before my very eyes." His voice rose at the end, but all I could hear was him calling me his 'wife'. It's seemed like ages since he called me that, yet since the divorce I never even thought he would think of me that way. Did he still care for me the way he used to? I smiled at the thought.

"Triangulating position, estimated time 30 seconds." An extra voice suddenly said, but from Edward's side of the screen. He froze suddenly and I realised that he didn't want them to know they were being located. Pity they already knew.

"What was that?! Are you tracking us?!" Laurent shouted, and he quickly pulled me back to him and repositioned the gun back to my head. "Call it off now otherwise I'll shoot her!" He warned.

"20 seconds left Detective." The officer shouted again.

"Do it!"

I looked back up to Edward, who seemed to be battling the decision to call off the trace or protect me. As we looked into each others eyes, it was as though he was communicating how he felt for me through the gaze in his eyes, despite the situation we were in.

"You have till the count of three to call it off." Laurent demanded.

"10 seconds left Edward." The officer called again.

For some reason I knew that this was going to be it, there would be no miraculous save, I was going to die here, in front of Edward.

"One…." Laurent started the countdown and I saw Edward tense up again.

"Look, stop, please, if you kill her we won't help you anymore." Edward pleaded. The gun was moved away from my head and I first thought he was listening to Edward, but then I heard the trigger being pulled and the gunfire echoed in the room.

I didn't feel any pain, but I looked down to see a small crater in the floor with a bullet lodged within it, a small wisp of smoke rising from it and into the air, just a few inches away from my leg.

"Two…" He continued.

Laurent brought the gun back towards me, but instead he pressed it into my neck. I cried in pain as the scorching metal of the gun burned my skin. He kept it there for a few seconds, the burning sensation continuing and I could smell my burnt skin.

He finally pulled the gun away but the pain was still there. I felt my tears rolling down my cheeks and before I could control myself my body was starting to shake with sobs.

"Please, for the love of God, please don't do this. Please don't." Edward pleaded. His voice, although trying to be calm and more collected, was shaking and weak. I looked up through my tears to see his own body shaking, a tear rolled down his cheek and he looked down defeated.

It was heartbreaking seeing him like this, weak. He was almost always the strong one between us; he would comfort me when I was weak and upset. Just remembering these things reminded me of how I felt for Edward, how I had always felt, and will feel in the future.

But knowing that this was possibly my last ever chance with him, I had to tell him how I felt, whether he returned the feeling or not, I wouldn't care. Just as long as he knew.

"Edward?" I said quietly, my throat was closing up I was that upset.

People in the room looked at me angrily, and from the looks in their eyes they were warning me not to say anything to jeopardise their plans. They didn't have to worry about that.

On hearing me calling his name, Edward's head lifted quickly and his eyes connected with mine. He was slightly shocked on hearing me speak, but all I could do was smile.

"I love you." I whispered, my emotions taking over me. All I wanted to do was reach out and touch him, just a small part of him. My hand lifted unintentionally towards the screen but I pulled it back down before it was obvious that I did.

His hand moved from beside him to be placed on the screen. I wasn't expecting a response from him, but when he opened his mouth my heart hammered heavily in my chest.

"I love you too." He whispered back, giving me a small crooked smile that I responded with my own.

I closed my eyes then, allowing Edward's smiling face to be the last thing that I saw, a comfort for me as I lowered my head, almost in acceptance of my fate, of my death. I was ready for it. I didn't think of the things I wouldn't be able to do as Laurent pulled the hammer back on the gun. All that was flashing through my mind was times we had spent together, times that I cherished and loved.

All I could do was sit and wait for the darkness to take me.

"Three." Laurent said for the final time.

And then a shot was fired.

.

.

.

.

It was silent and dark, the sound of the gunshot was still echoing in my ears, however I felt no pain, no agonising feeling that I knew I should be feeling if I had just been shot. Or maybe I died instantly. So quickly I could never feel the pain.

But something was wrong. If I was dead then why was I still aware of what was going on in the room I had supposedly died in? How come I wasn't with my family, my father or my mother? Shouldn't I be feeling emptiness, or something? Seeing the bright white light that I was supposed to go through? Was there even a heaven or was this it?

If I was dead how come I could hear my breathing and my heart as it beat heavily against my chest?

_Am I even dead?_

It didn't feel right for me to be dead, things weren't adding up.

And then as quickly as I thought I had died, I realised I was still in this hellhole. I was aware of what was going on in the room, feel my heart beating against my chest, hear my heavy breathing, because I was _alive._

I opened my eyes warily and was unfortunate to see the same room I was in a few moments earlier; not heaven as I predicted earlier.

I looked down to check if I had any injuries, and was relieved when I couldn't see nor feel any. My cheeks were still wet from the tears I had shed, and now starting to fall again knowing I wasn't dead. It was a strange sort of happiness I was feeling, like another chance at life. But still, someone had fired a gun, and Laurent couldn't have missed from this close to me.

I slowly looked back up to the screen, remembering that Edward had just watched this whole ordeal. But why couldn't I hear him? And then I noticed the screen was now black, showing no image of Edward, no picture was being played on the television.

The video camera which was on top of the television was no longer there, and I looked around quickly for it, just to see if it could possibly be still recording something, anything. But my luck ended when I saw the lens just in front of me, along with various other pieces scattered in a small area on the floor, a small wisp of smoke was rising from the recorder which was lying broken on the floor.

I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion as I looked at the mess before me, and then I heard a woman's voice. I looked back up to see the silhouette of a woman sitting in the shadows, from what I could assume she was wearing the black uniform, but she wasn't wearing a balaclava as her hair was wild and loose, and from the small light in the room, tinges of red reflected off of it. She sat, holding her gun in her hand, and I could just see some smoke rising from the barrel of her gun.

"Awww," She said sarcastically, and leaning forward so some of the light casted off of her face, but all I focused on were her eyes, filled with terror and hatred, "How precious."

* * *

><p><strong>AN: So this update is for the reader whose birthday it is today, Happy Birthday! :)<strong>

**Thanks for everyone who reviewed the last chapter :) Just a note to say those 'guest' reviewers without an account, I'm sure you know (or may not) but I can't PM you, so you are unable to get a preview. It's just in case you may think i'm not doing what I said I would. So sorry, and hope you can just stick till the next update without the preview :)**

**But for everyone else, review and you will get a sneak peak of the next chapter :)**

**Thanks for reading :)**

**Jaimie x**

**PS. Got my results and passed first year uni! :) good luck to anyone waiting on any, and for anyone who has got theirs I hope it was what they wanted :)**


	26. Chapter 25

**Chapter 25**

**~~*~~  
>Bella's POV<br>~*~**

"What the hell was that Victoria?! I had it under control." Laurent yelled from behind me.

"Sure you did." She answered back sarcastically. "Let me ask you something, what would you have done after you said 'three'? Would you have actually killed her?"

"Yes I would have." Laurent said boldly.

I flinched thinking that if this Victoria woman wouldn't have intervened, then I would definitely be dead.

"And then what would happen, since you blew the brains out of the only thing that would get the Brothers out of jail, what would you have done?"

"I would have followed through with what I said I'd do next, don't underestimate my ability Victoria."

"I'm not, but when you threaten to kill civilians in Chicago, they'll react with you like they would react with terrorists. They would not negotiate. Understand."

Laurent just nodded his head and then Victoria's gaze fell onto me.

"So this is Cullen's wife then." She stated as she took another step towards me. "Do you know that your precious husband killed my fiancé?" She asked and I just shook my head as she crouched down infront of me and leaned forward a little. "You're lucky they won't let me have some revenge." She snarled at me before Laurent put his hand on her shoulder and pulled her back.

"Fix this, now." She ordered to everyone, and then stormed out the room, not without giving me one last hateful glare before she left.

Someone grabbed hold of my upper arm tightly and pulled me up. I turned my head and noticed it was Rosalie; she had pulled her balaclava off and was leading me out the room.

"I'm fine." She said to Felix when he offered to take me, and continued to pull me towards where I normally stayed.

Once she dragged me to the room, she quickly grabbed something from the room opposite, and then she stepped inside and locked the door behind her.

I walked over to the bed and sat down, burying my head in my hands as the effect of what could have happened to me started to kick in.

"What's going to happen now?" I asked.

Rosalie shrugged. "I think Victoria wants Laurent to get back in touch with Cullen." I noticed then what she had grabbed; a bucket, a couple of bottles of water and a sponge. I wonder what she was going to do with that.

"Victoria," I scoffed, "what's the deal with her anyway?"

"Let's just say she's a vengeful, spiteful bitch." She sighed and then turned to me. "Just over a month ago, did you hear about the raid in Chicago, one man died, four were injured including two cops, and Detective Cullen finally made the arrest on the leaders?"

I nodded, remembering Jacob in the hospital afterwards, and then bumping into Edward_._

_I can't believe he still loves me._

"Well Victoria was there as well, except she escaped because her fiancé, James, acted as a diversion so they could escape.

"Unfortunately she watched him die, and she's been in a terrible state ever since. If it wasn't for the fact the Volturi needs you, she would have had your head a long time ago."

I gulped. "Lucky for me then." I said lightly.

"She's a short fuse Victoria, I'd be careful." Rosalie warned and I nodded my head in understanding. "Let me see your neck."

My neck? And then just as I thought that the burning feeling returned, my mind was on other things that I forgot about the burn from Laurent pressing the recently fired gun into my neck.

She tilted my head for me, and just the strain from tilting made me wince.

"Can I ask you something else? If you don't mind?" She nodded as she continued to study the damage. "How come they kept you alive?" I felt her pause for a second, I hope she didn't take that in a bad way. "I mean I thought they were going to kill you."

"I'll be honest I thought so too, I think Royce may have persuaded Laurent enough to keep me alive. However if they knew I was alone right now talking to you they'd be down here in a flash. They don't trust me looking after you." She sighed, "I have to go, I'll have to check what's happening now that Laurent nearly messed things up. If something's decided I'll be the one to get you okay? For now," she gestured to the bucket and bottles of water, "to avoid making that worse," she said nodding to my neck, "pour the bottles of water into the bucket and then use the sponge to get the water to run down your neck. It's not perfect, of course there isn't a sink in here; just don't press the sponge against it. Do you understand everything I've said?"

I nodded my head, and she unlocked the door and left without another word.

.

.

.

My leg was bouncing constantly as I was very aware of the others deciding whether I was useful or not.

In other words, should they kill me now or later?

I made a mental assumption that it had been a few hours since Rosalie left to check what was happening. I don't think anyone was outside keeping guard either. It must be some big decision to get their leaders out of jail.

I got up from the bed and started to pace instead, walking around the room as I was alone with my thoughts.

One thing I didn't think of before was whether Edward thought I was still alive. Did the camera manage to show I was alive for one tiny second, or was there gunfire and it cut to black? Was there a chance he thought I had died?

I gasped when the door to my room burst open and Rosalie stormed in, searching the room until her eyes found me and then she quickly grabbed me and was pulling me out of the room without explanation. Her eyes searched each corridor to make sure they were empty before going down it.

When one of them had a large group of men coming down loading their guns, she quickly pulled me into the nearest room, and without me asking she had already started to explain.

"We couldn't get in touch with Cullen to tell him what had happened, and the department in Chicago told us he had disappeared and they couldn't find him.

"A few minutes ago our mole told us he had figured out our location and he estimated he'll be here in a few minutes."

Instinctively I smiled knowing he was here, he was coming for me.

"This isn't a good thing Bella. He said he was by himself, armed and wants revenge. He thinks your dead!"

"What? No…"

"Unless someone stops him he is practically going on his own suicide mission."

The shock had left me speechless, but Rosalie placed something in my hand.

I looked down and noticed she had placed a gun in my hand.

"You have to get out of here. I managed to leave earlier to get you out, but once they realised Cullen was here they wanted to kill you straight away. Wait in here for a few minutes and then try and escape. Most of the people in here don't actually know your face, so if they see you with a gun they might just assume you're with them.

"Try and escape, but if you do see Cullen…"

"Stop him." I managed to say.

Rosalie nodded. "The cops will be here soon as well, I know I should be gunning for the bad team but I don't think we'll make it once reinforcements arrive."

"I'm sorry." I whispered.

"Me too," She smiled back, "Sorry I married the wrong guy." She quickly pulled me into a hug. "Good luck Bella, I hope you get out alright. Remember, wait here then go for it and don't forget to take the safety off the gun before you do anything." She pulled back and turned to leave the room.

"Wait Rosalie," She turned her head back, "thanks for helping me, and I hope you make it too." She smiled and nodded before leaving the room.

I quickly heard someone shout out from outside the room. "Rosalie have you seen the hostage, Laurent said she's gone missing."

I held my breath as I waited for Rosalie to answer. She could just turn her back on me right now and teach me not to trust the opposite side…

"No I haven't seen her, but I heard someone say she was heading for the roof, get a bunch of you to head there now."

My breath came out in one big rush and I was internally thankful for Rosalie helping me out. Plus I think she just created a diversion for me to make it easier to escape.

I heard footsteps running away from the door and I assumed it was clear to leave the room.

I opened the door carefully, inch by inch so I could check to see if there was no one there. I peeked my head out and looked both ways to be sure and then left the room and ran down the corridor.

Every time I heard a sound; running footsteps, or voices, I didn't know whether to act casual and pretend to be on the look out for, well me, and have the huge risk of thinking they didn't know who I was and let me go past, or, on the sort of safe side, of hiding, and hope they don't see me with a gun in my hands. I would be dead in no time.

Plus, I didn't even know the layout of this building. All I knew was to head downwards. The chances of getting lost and then caught were quite high at the moment.

The obvious route downwards would be the fire escape stairwell. I know I've seen a main stairwell somewhere else in the building that they would likely use, but, if they were thinking like me, they would probably go for the fire escape. God I hope I'm right.

It only took a few lucky turns down the corridor and I had managed to find a stairwell, an empty one as well. Must be in the back part of the building and people were either going to the front of the building towards Edward or up the fire escape on Rosalie's false lead. Lucky for me.

As I was going down the stairs however, I knew, either way, I would have to get to the front to find Edward, show him that I was alive.

I decided to just keep going down the stairs and deal with it when I got to the ground floor. I didn't even know what floor I was on, or how many floors this building even had. Fortunately, I wasn't too high up, as I saw a sign for a warehouse leading me to the next floor. _This building had a warehouse?_ Anyway, it would be on the ground floor so I didn't have far to go.

When I got to the ground floor, two people ran past me and I froze on the stairs. They never saw me, or should I say they never really took notice of me. They were probably running in the direction of where Edward was, since that was the immediate danger, not me.

I took a deep breath and ran after them, hoping I was right, but I suddenly halted and hid to a wall when I saw Laurent talking to the two men who had just been in front of me.

"Cullen's no longer here; we think he's been dealt with…"Laurent stated and I gasped, my hand came up to my mouth to stop myself from making anymore noise. _He can't be dead._ "…but we haven't actually seen a body so keep on the look out, where's the girl?"

One of the men who ran past me, starting speaking, though out of breath, "Rosalie said…she said that she had went to…the roof. But they haven't found her."

"Rosalie can no longer be trusted, Royce has just been found dead and some of her stuff has gone. If you see her, shoot on sight. Go back up stairs and make sure Isabella hasn't left the building yet." He ordered.

"Wait sir, what does she look like?"

"Are you fucking kidding me? She's been here a month, how do you not know her?!" Laurent shouted, and then he was silent for a moment.

"Oh shit! We've just went past her on the main stairwell!" The other guy exclaimed. Laurent probably showed them a photo.

"We did?" The first one asked the same time Laurent had asked angrily, "You did?"

"Yeah I think so, she was at the back stairwell, she probably went in the opposite direction as us."

"Dammit!" Laurent yelled, "You two come with me."

I heard footsteps get louder and I moved as close as I could to this little gap so they wouldn't see me as they passed.

I kept my eyes closed in fear and stayed completely still as I heard the footsteps right next to me and then quieter as they moved decreasingly further away. I opened my eyes and saw the three figures run in the opposite direction to which I had came.

I carried on down the corridor until it split into two directions. More voices came from the one on the left so I quickly ran down the one on the right, and noticed the style of the building had changed. It seemed older, like the building I had just been in was a renovation onto an older building. I saw a sign for storage and realised that was what they must have built it from.

I must have been alongside the main warehouse, since there were no other rooms. That was until I saw two open doors in front of me and the sound of people arguing inside. I guess I'd just have to run past, hope that no one would see me, and if they did, just mistake me as someone who was looking for Edward.

As I got closer I heard the argument a bit more, but not a lot. Now all the Volturi members must have been turning against each other.

"…what else do you want from me?!" One guy shouted, and I quickly ran past, keeping my head slightly to the left so they wouldn't see my face.

From the corner of my eye I had managed to make three people out, and one of them was _extremely_ small…wait a minute. I stopped running and continued listening in on the argument.

"He doesn't know? ...Well this just makes things more fun." I recognized that voice. That was Victoria.

"How long did you say Royce would be?" Another guy asked, this voice was different to the first man's voice.

"I didn't, but he should have been here by now."

"Good, I'll be glad to see his reaction; I didn't have a good view back in the station."

"Have a good view of what? What the hell are you talking about?" The first guy asked…hold on, I recognised that voice as well. I turned around and started walking slowly back to the open doors, continuing listening to the conversation.

"You don't get to speak." The second guy shouted, and there was a sound, like the sound of someone being punched.

"We're talking about the fact your precious little wifey…isn't actually dead."

"Aww Vic why did you have to ruin the surprise."

"What?" The first guy said again, and his voice seemed rougher.

"This is great."

"No one shot your wife; you just assumed she was dead." Victoria said.

They had to be talking about me, but that would mean…

I slowly peered my head around the door and saw what I had believed to be something else. Saw someone who I thought was someone else.

Victoria and a blonde man had their backs to me, but both of them had their guns pointed to a man who was kneeling on the floor. A man whom I had originally thought was really, _really_, small. A man which was actually, _Edward._

Without even realizing what I was doing I had stepped into the middle of the doorway, my mind so in shock that he was actually here in front of me, made me stand there and just stare at him.

"No, I saw her get shot." He said back to them, but then his eyes, instead of looking at the two in front of him, found mine.

I could tell on the expression on his face that he couldn't believe what he was seeing, especially after what he just said.

"No," the blonde guy said, not realizing Edward wasn't even listening to what he said, "you heard a shot fire and then the screen went off, that was what you saw."

"It can't be." He said quietly, though I don't think it was in reply to what the guy had said.

"Yup, and my good friend Royce has gone to fetch her so we can kill her in front of you."

My eyes widened and Edward's did too. I guess here wasn't the best place to be right now.

Victoria must have noticed the change in Edward's expression, and that he was focused on something else, so she turned around and I was caught.

"Bella run!" Edward shouted, and I ran in time as a bullet hit the wall behind where I was standing.

"Riley go after her!" Victoria barked at him.

"Shit." I muttered to myself as I tried to run faster. The gun was rubbing against my leg as I ran, and I was reminded of its presence.

I knew I wouldn't be able to outrun him, so I grabbed the gun that Rosalie had given me and turned around. I stood still and waited till I had a better target. I aimed and waited for Riley to come around the corner.

I heard his footsteps get closer and I pulled the hammer back on the gun, and as he came into view, his eyes widened as he saw me with his gun, and without hesitation I fired.

But something was wrong. When I fired, all I heard was a click. No 'bang', nothing.

I kept pulling the trigger but nothing happened, and a huge sense of dread started to overwhelm me.

Knowing nothing happened, Riley, now no longer afraid started to make his way towards me with an evil grin appearing on his face.

"…_remember, wait here then go for it and don't forget to take the safety off the gun before you do anything."_

Oh crap.

**~~*~~  
>Edward's POV<br>~*~**

Victoria kept the gun trained on me as she watched the door.

We couldn't hear a thing from the corridor. It was silent.

The only thing I could hear was my heart, because it was beating so heavily it was like I could feel it by my ears.

Bella had just been standing right there. The brunette that had run across was her. For some strange reason she came back and then she saw me, and I saw her.

The expression on her face was nothing compared to what she probably saw on mine. Shock? Confusion? Relief? I had thought it was a ghost. A weird hallucination.

After spending hours believing that she was dead, my emotions leading my actions, sending me here on what can only be described as a suicide mission originating from revenge. No care for my life whatsoever, except to find the person who had killed my Bella.

I never believed it when I saw her. I couldn't. Yet when our eyes met it felt like the world had stood still. She was actually alive. The sudden surge of happiness I had felt was overwhelming.

And then Victoria spotted her. All I was focused on then was that she got out of here safely, and I told her to run.

Victoria had quickly fired the gun at her, and I stopped breathing for a moment wondering if she had reacted in time. I never managed to breathe back in however as has soon as she had sent Riley after her, she had hit me across the face with the gun.

Now we were waiting. If no one came back then I knew she had gotten out safely, as Riley wouldn't have come back.

Maybe she had a weapon? If she had used a gun we would have probably heard it by now. Plus I don't think Riley would shoot her as I think the two of them are pretty keen on harming her in front of me. _Bastards._

I could tell Victoria was getting nervous about what was happening. She was emotionally upset (in fairness I was too, but I had a clear advantage over her) and if she lost control of the situation now, there was no way she was going to win it back.

Suddenly we could hear footsteps in the hall.

Victoria's back straightened as her eyes flickered between me and the entrance. I could see she didn't know whether to have the gun pointed at me or at the door, but she settled for me as we both watched in anticipation.

We could see a shadow now on the far wall, getting smaller as the person came closer.

_Don't be stupid to come back for me Bella. Let it be Riley…empty handed and at a loss._

I spoke to soon.

A figure appeared around the corner, and my stomach dropped when I saw them.

Riley strode into the room with a smile on his face, and Bella was drooping unconscious over his shoulder.

Victoria turned to me and smirked.

"What have you done to her?!"

"Calm down, we haven't killed her…yet, just had to stop her from running away that's all." Riley remarked, and then as if she was a bag of potatoes, dumped her on the floor next to me.

I started to crawl towards her but Riley pointed his gun at me. "Don't go any closer." He warned, then he fished something out of his pocket and threw it to Victoria, who caught it. "She was carrying this."

I looked to the gun in her hands and to Bella who was lying unconscious on the floor. Her hair was covering her face so I couldn't see her. _Why didn't you use it Bella?_

But then my question was answered. "She tried to shoot me, but stupid bitch forgot to take the safety off." He laughed.

"Let him go over to her, she won't have much time left." Victoria said, and as soon as she did I quickly scrambled over to her, placing her head in my lap and brushing the hair from her face. Her pale skin was marked by bruises, some were fresh, a dark blue, whilst a few others on her cheeks were starting to fade. She had a fresh cut on her cheek, and the blood was starting to trickle down her skin, and I quickly dabbed it with my shirt.

"Oh Bella." I whispered; quiet enough that the other two couldn't hear. I continued stroking the hair off her face, cradling her cheek, just happy that she was in my arms.

I heard a groan and I looked to her face to see her eyes flicker. "Edward?" She said softly, barely loud enough.

"Shh, I'm here."

"Urgh, this is making me feel sick." Riley said distastefully from behind us.

"Is she awake?" Victoria asked, and he must have nodded because she added, "then what are we waiting for."

Suddenly I felt a hand on my back, pulling on my clothes and yanking me backwards, whilst Victoria went over to Bella and grabbed her by the hair and pulled her up, dragging her so she was kneeling in front of me.

I started to struggle and thrash against Riley's hold on me, but I felt cool metal against the back of my head, "Stop otherwise you'll miss the show." Riley said into my ear, and with his other hand he grabbed my own hair to keep me looking at Bella.

Victoria had easy control of Bella who was still weak, and who couldn't fight back in this state.

"Bella look it me, everything will be alright." I said, and I could see it the fear behind her watery eyes. This was different from last time. Even though it was the same problem, the situation had changed, and it made things more definite, and it was terrifying the both of us.

"Stop with the comforting Cullen because we all know it's worthless. You are going to watch her die, whilst you watch helplessly, and you're going to have to live with it for the rest of your life just like what you've put me through. Any last words? Oops, I forgot you've done that already."

"I'm sorry Bella." I added quickly, tears running endlessly down both our faces as Victoria pulled the hammer back. "I'm so sor-"

Suddenly there was a large crashing sound, so unexpected that even Victoria seemed to jump.

"FBI open the door!" Someone shouted from the entrances, they kept hitting the metal doors, trying to get inside.

Using the momentary distraction, Riley, who was paying attention to the sudden banging than his hold on me, fell easily to the ground when I elbowed him in the stomach, knocking the air out of him, and then shoving him backwards as I dove forward.

Victoria was livid, and knowing she was going to turn the gun on one of us, I quickly tackled her to the floor, my hand making sure it held her gun wielding wrist, making sure she let go when it hit the floor. The gun went sliding across the floor.

She started trying to claw at my face, hitting me wherever she could, but I had the upper hand with my strength, and managed to easily subdue her, and knock her out with a couple of hits.

Once I checked she was definitely unconscious, I quickly got up to see what Riley was doing.

He was still on the ground holding his stomach, but then his eyes glanced to something on the floor, and then back to me, and then to Bella who had been pushed to the floor in the commotion, watching terrified at what was going on.

I followed his line of sight and saw the gun that had slid across the floor.

He was closer to it than me, so I didn't know if going towards him or the gun would be at a major disadvantage to me.

He made his decision first, and scrambled towards the gun.

I just decided to sprint towards him, diving at him just as he reached the gun, as he tried to swing it around to shoot me, but instead I landed just in time as I managed to knock his hand slightly, so when the shot rang I knew it didn't hit anybody.

I heard Bella cry out thinking it had hit someone, and the banging on the door increased as the police tried to get inside.

Riley and I wrestled on the floor as he tried to aim the gun at me, but I managed to keep it pointing it the opposite direction.

Riley swung his hand and it connected with my face, stunning me enough that I lost my position causing Riley to swing me over and pin me to the floor, but I still had some strength to keep his gun away from me.

Now having the upper ground on me, he started to swing more punches at me, and I could feel my grip on Riley's wrist start to loosen, and I knew in just a couple more hits I'd end up letting go. My other hand just wasn't blocking him enough.

Suddenly, the weight on top of me had gone, and Riley rolled to the floor besides me, along with Bella, who must have tried to tackle him to get him off me.

I heard Riley groan, I myself was struggling slightly, and I was feeling dizzy from the hits to the face. I saw Bella slowly try to lift herself up, and make her way over to me.

"Don't move." Riley suddenly ordered, and my stomach dropped again.

Unfortunately when Bella tackled Riley, he never let go of the gun. He was still lying on the floor, but had his gun pointed at Bella.

I quickly pushed myself up, and he switched the gun from Bella to me and I froze. "You too Cullen," He said as he got himself up, the gun switching between the two of us. He walked over to Victoria, crouching down beside her with the gun still pointed at us, checking her pulse.

"Damn, Victoria won't be happy, but since I don't have much time I'll just have to do it without her." He stood back up and stepped to the side, the three of us stood in a triangle.

"Riley don't do this, you know if you kill her we'll get the death penalty for you, and that's if those officers out there don't shoot you down themselves."

"Do you think I'm bothered about myself? All I care about is making you suffer." He said, I noticed the gun was aiming back at me now.

There seemed to be more commotion outside now, I wondered if the FBI were close to getting inside.

"Riley, just think about what you're doing?"

"I am." He answered, pulling back the hammer on the gun.

Suddenly the officers burst into the room, scanning the area, as the three of us stood there in a triangle.

Riley gave a quick look to the side, "You know what Cullen," he said, looking at me, and raising his gun, officers started to shout at him to put it down, "Fuck you."

Instead of pointing the gun at me, it was aimed at Bella, and I knew I had a split second to do something, so I dove, and as I dove, my one intention was her.

Riley fired his gun; as soon as he did there was an explosion of gunfire as the officers shot him down.

I felt a blinding pain to my back as I reached her, and tried to cover every part of her as I pushed her to the floor.

The firing had stopped, but I still lay over Bella, my teeth starting to grind as the pain from the shot started to make itself known.

"Are you hurt?" I asked Bella, even though I knew Riley's bullet, which was meant for her, had landed in my back.

Slightly dazed by what had happened, she shook her head, and I started to push myself up.

I faltered slightly, as the bullet must have hit by my shoulder, and I groaned in pain.

Bella suddenly was alert and looked at me in worry. "Edward did he get you? Oh God please don't tell me he got you." She pleaded.

"I'll be alright." I said, as gave up on standing up and just rolled on to my back. There was a sudden blaze of pain and I clenched my eyes. _That wasn't a good idea._

"You don't look it. Officer I need help?!" She yelled to one of the officers who was making there way towards us. Bella was now kneeling besides me, one hand was stroking my hair, and the other found its way into mine and held it.

I laughed, "Bella I'm alright." I repeated.

"You've just been shot how can you be alr-" But before she could finish I took my hand out of hers and started unbuttoning some of the buttons on my shirt to show what was underneath.

"I'm wearing a vest." I said, and tapped my chest a few times to prove it.

Bella looked down to my chest and then to my face. Next thing I know she hit me. "That's for getting me worried." And then she hit me with her other arm on my shoulder, "And that's for making me hurt my hand on your stupid Kevlar vest."

I laughed, "Is your hand okay?" I asked, as I tried to push myself up and found it a lot easier.

"Yeah, will you be?" She asked, nodding to my shoulder as I rolled it around tentatively.

I nodded, "It'll bruise, but that's about it." I said as I managed to sit up properly. As I did I was aware of how close our heads were.

Bella had noticed too, and for a few moments we just looked into each other's eyes, neither of us making the first move. I glanced down to her lips, which must have brought Bella back to reality, as she shyly looked down and turned her head away.

"Detective Cullen?" An officer said from besides us. I leant back, not realising how leant forward I actually was, and looked up to the officer who was covered in the SWAT uniform. I nodded, "Do you need the paramedic Sir?"

"No I don't, but Bella here does." I said and she was about to protest, "She's been here a month I want her seen to." I gave her a look to say that was final.

The SWAT officer offered a hand to Bella, and with a quick look to me, placed hers in his as he helped pull her up, she swayed slightly as she got to her feet, and I was ready to jump up and help her if the officer didn't have a steady hold onto her.

"You alright ma'am?"

"Just a bit dizzy, and please, call me Bella." She held a hand to her head; I wondered what Riley might have done to her to knock her unconscious.

"Nice to meet you Bella, I'm Seth…" The officer said, as he led Bella away to the paramedics who were entering the warehouse at that moment.

I watched her as she reached the paramedics, and they quickly guided her out, and Seth pointed in my direction, and another one ran straight to me.

"The woman there said you were shot, where about?" The paramedic said as he reached me, urgently laying and opening his bag to treat me.

"It hit my back, but I've got a vest on."

The paramedic still decided to check the area, to make sure it was only bruising, but then once he believed I was fine, he let me go, and I got up. Victoria was coming around and they were handcuffing her hands together, and I looked next to her to see Riley's body, face down in a pool of his own blood. I sighed and walked out into the commotion outside.

There were police cars, SWAT vans, ambulances, and even the press were here. The forensics were getting ready to go in, and even the Coroners were wheeling away bodies.

Before I could try and spot Bella in the midst of all of this, an officer came running up to me, with a phone in his hand, and not the happiest look on his face.

"Detective Cullen?" he asked and I nodded. He then passed me the phone and turned away, muttering something under his breath like "good luck."

I brought the phone to my ear and said that I was speaking when suddenly Taylor's voice roared down the other end of the line. I had to pull it away from my ear it was that loud.

_"...you purposefully went against my orders Cullen! Apart from putting yourself at risk, if you would have died in there you would have put innocent people's lives at risk! I want your ass in my office as quick as you can because you need to pull your act together."_ And then he hung up.

I took a breath and gave the phone back to the man who had returned when he saw the one-sided conversation had finished. I was in some deep, serious trouble when I got back. It surprised me that he kept that phone call short. Unfortunately for me it just means even longer in his office when I get back.

What was the worst that could happen? I guess I'll probably lose my job. I might ask Jasper to start packing the stuff on my desk to make it a quicker exit. And the best? Probably a few months suspension. Either way I wasn't going to be working for a while.

I scanned the vehicles and made my way to one of the other ambulances, where I could see Bella, and from the looks of things she was adamantly telling the paramedic that she was fine.

The bruising on my back hurt slightly as I walked, but I knew it was nothing to serious. As I walked, officers I passed congratulated me, and any other time I would have stopped and maybe bragged for a bit, but all I was focused on was getting to Bella.

After everything that had happened, with the Volturi, that video call, it just made me realise something which I was too ignorant, too self-absorbed in work and other things to realise.

I still loved Bella. I don't think I ever stopped. Blinded by our arguments and distance, I think I forced myself to believe that divorce was the right option. I just hate the way in which I realised. But the positive thing was that I knew Bella loved me too. That video call just confirmed it. We just had to work on the relationship. No more blaming each other over Mason, no more late nights and early mornings at the office. We belong together.

"Honestly I'm fine."

"We're going to still take you to the hospital and run a few tests just to make sure though Mrs. Cullen."

"It's Swan." She muttered as the paramedic stepped into the ambulance to sort a few things out. Her correcting the name didn't change how she felt, it's been that way for a few months, of cause she'll correct it.

I got to the ambulance and Bella lifted her head. She was wrapped in a blanket but looked like she was going to drop from exhaustion any minute now.

"Hey," I said, smiling at her as I stood in front of her.

She smiled back but it wasn't her usual smile, there seemed to be some sort of conflict behind her eyes.

"We need to talk about what happened." She said sadly.

"Okay." I said, a little confused.

"I need to explain about what happened...with the video." I nodded and she took a breath and continued. "What I said..." She started, her eyes averting to the floor, "...what we both said, I don't think we should act upon it. I mean I thought I was going to die, I didn't think you would even say it back..."

"Bella, what are you trying to say?"

She took another breath and looked me in the eyes, "I'm saying that I think we were caught up in the moment. If we decide to act on it I fear it will be more damaging than it be good, so it would be better if we didn't do anything, because ultimately we're both going to get hurt again."

It was silent between us for a few moments as I thought over what she said. All I wanted to do was kiss her, prove to her that she was wrong, show her that we belonged together.

"Edward?" She asked quietly.

Now was the chance to argue for us, to fight for a new start.

But instead, I swallowed the lump forming in my throat and said, "Yeah you're right, I would have said the same thing."

Bella could see right through me, she knew I wasn't being honest. The water building up behind my eyes wasn't a great help either.

She stood up so we were about a foot apart. "Thank you." She whispered. It looked like she wanted to hug me, but she decided against it and turned around and climbed into the back of the ambulance, and then sat down on the bed, her eyes avoiding mine even though mine never stopped looking at her.

It wasn't until the paramedic went to close the back doors when she actually lifted her head and looked at me. We never broke contact until the door done it for us, and I remained standing there, as I watched the ambulance drive away.

I didn't even bother to wipe the tear that had fallen from my eyes.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Sooo lots going on in this chapter, let me know your thoughts :) <strong>

**Thanks a lot for those who reviewed/favourite etc last chap, and once again, reviews = sneak peaks :)**

**Small note to say that I'm going away now for 2 weeks, and the next chapter only has a little bit written so it'll take some time but hopefully not too long, so please stick with me :)**

**Thanks again**

**Jaimie xxx**


	27. Chapter 26

**Chapter 26**

**~~*~~  
>Edward's POV<br>~*~**

I don't know why I was still waiting in the hospital, sat in a chair, keeping an eye on Bella's door.

Well that was a lie actually. I knew exactly why.

I was delaying myself; that was the main reason.

I had given myself the excuse that if I stay and keep an eye on Bella, since no guard had been assigned to look after her, then I didn't have to return to Chicago and face the wrath of Taylor or face the possibility of losing my job. So I assigned myself.

Bella of course had no idea I was sat out here. To be fair the Doctors had said after they had performed their initial checks, they gave her a small sedative and she fell asleep so she couldn't have known anyway, but even if she was awake I would have made sure she didn't know.

It felt slightly creepy, sure, keeping an eye on her room after what she said to me before she got into the ambulance. But I was on high alert right now. It had only been perhaps 2 hours since the FBI had intervened and interrupted Riley, and I was making sure no stray members wanted to finish off the job. I think they had an idea their bosses weren't getting out of jail, so they would want to do what was promised.

Well that's what I presumed anyway and hence why I was sat outside her room.

I knew as well the longer I stayed here the angrier Taylor would get, but I just wanted to have these few moments to myself, these few moments of elation, before I would have to deal with that talk.

I say elation. Elation was what I felt when I arrested the Volturi leaders. I guess what I was mainly feeling now was…relief. Just a major sense of relief. It was over, and Bella was safe (for now) and as soon as everyone has been charged and put in jail, I can finally close this chapter of my life. I felt like this was good justice, for the murder of my mother. It may have been all those years ago, but it was worth it.

A sudden noise interrupted me from my thoughts; a loud bang from down the corridor, so I leaned forward in my seat to see what was happening.

"I can't believe she was here the whole fucking time," boomed a voice as a large man burst through the double doors at the end of the corridor.

I stood up and placed my hand on my gun thinking it may have been a threat, but I let my hand drop to my side when I saw who it was.

Emmett was in his Police Uniform, storming down the corridor, a nurse on his heels trying to tell him to leave. He must have just walked straight to the ward, not telling them who he was.

"It's alright he's her sister." I shouted down to her, and she stopped following Emmett.

"Yeah she's my fucking sister!" Emmett shouted in her direction. He was mad. Although I wasn't sure why, "and she was here the whole fucking time." He shouted again. Maybe that was the reason.

When he got to me I wasn't sure how he was going to react, I had no idea if some of this anger he was feeling was going to be directed to me.

Suddenly his arms raised and I flinched, but then I realised what was happening. His arms had wrapped around my body, and it was then that I realised; Emmett Swan was hugging me. His arms were wrapped around me and his head was by my shoulder.

"Thank you." He said, sounding like he was on the verge of tears, "Thank you so much for saving her, she's all I've got left Edward, you don't realise what it means to me to know she's safe now."

"No problem mate." I answered, giving him a pat on his back before he pulled away. I knew it was a rarity to see Emmett emotional like this, and he tried to act like he was back to normal again by trying to subtly wipe his eyes.

"Is she in there then?" He asked, trying to peer through the closed blinds of the windows of her room behind me.

"Yeah, she's asleep."

"What? Induced sleep or…?"

"By her own choice, exhaustion just got to her, been put on some pain meds and she's been asleep for an hour or so already, but she'll probably remain asleep for a while yet."

"Ok, I want to make sure I'm here though when she wakes up."

"Of course, there's a café in the hospital, we'll see if we can get them to open it for us." I smiled to him and we headed down.

We couldn't get into the café but there was a small waiting area around the corner with a coffee machine. I helped myself to a cup and poured Emmett one as we sat down.

"Something eerie about being in a hospital at night." He said as I handed him the cup. He took a sip and grimaced.

"It's from a hospital what do you expect, Starbucks?" I joked, trying to lighten the mood, taking a sip from my own.

"So how is she?" Emmett asked, "What have the Doctors said?"

"They're still waiting on scans; she's err, pretty bruised…" I watched Emmett's other fist clench up, knew I had to be careful with what I said, but also knowing him he'd still want to know, "…so they wanted to do some checks in case she had some internal damage.

"That so far is the worst of it, bearing in mind we don't know what the results may say, but also they've said she's malnourished and dehydrated plus a few minor wounds that they could deal with easily."

"Did they, err…did they order a rape kit?" Emmett asked nervously.

"Yeah they did…" Emmett's face looked terrified with a possible answer, "…and don't worry, it came back negative."

Emmett visibly relaxed, "Thank God." He whispered to himself. "It kills me a bit you know, to know that she was here, in Seattle."

"There was no way you could have known."

Emmett was shaking his head, "If there was a hint she was in Washington, I would have rallied my own set of men to individually knock on each house to try and find her. But no, instead all I done was sat at my desk, dealing with petty crimes whilst my sister was getting beat up by those sick bastards in the same state as me." Emmett's other fist clenched up, breaking the fragile plastic cup and spilling hot coffee everywhere. "Shit!"

"You can't beat yourself over this Emmett, be glad that she's here now safe, and that you're able to be by her side."

He paused from trying to clean up his mess and looked at me, giving me a small nod before going back to cleaning.

"Have you not been checked over?" He asked as he finished wiping off the last remaining spots of coffee with a tissue.

"I'm fine, the paramedic checked my shoulder where the bullet hit the vest but I've been cleared, only have a bruise here and there."

"I really appreciate what you done back there."

"Doing what?"

"The bullet. I heard from a few guys who had entered the warehouse that you had jumped in front of it. Jumped in front of her."

"Em, I knew I had a vest on…"

"It doesn't matter if you did or not. It's the act itself that I'm grateful for. That bullet could have ended up in the back of your head for all you knew but you still dove to protect her, and for that I'll be ever grateful to you, I really owe you one."

"Thanks Em, that means a lot."

He smiled at me, then leaned back, "Hell I might even forgive you when you two get back together."

Although he didn't mean it, his words were like a knife to the chest. He must have seen my reaction and asked what the matter was.

"Bella and I aren't going to get back together." I said sadly.

"You're kidding, right?" I shook my head, "But I heard that you two declared your love for each other on the video feed?" I looked up at him wondering how, "Word of mouth can travel quickly, you done it in a room packed with people Edward for crying out loud."

I sighed, fair enough. Seems like the new gossip of the police force would be the two seemingly in love couple, who declared their love and risked their lives for the other, weren't going to get back together. Seemed anti-climatic to me.

"It was Bella's idea," I started, "when we were by the paramedics after the FBI had arrived, she said it would be better if we didn't get back together, as chances are we could end up splitting up again."

"And do you agree with her? With her decision not to get back together?"

"Well it's not ideal." I admitted to him,

"So if you could have, would you have tried to work things out with her?"

"Honestly yes. It sounds horrible but it took me almost losing her to realise how much I can't be without her. I guess it was different with the divorce because she was still _here_ and I was focused on my job. I thought I had fallen out of love with her, but me thinking she was dead proved me wrong."

"Then why the hell are you not in there fighting for the two of you?!"

"Because she has a point. We were falling apart before all this happened, and getting back together after such a traumatic incident isn't healthy. Plus, if it will make her happier in the long term, who am I to stop her from getting that?"

Emmett just stared at me in utter shock and wonder. "You're mad. The two of you, completely mad. Does Jasper know?"

"Well sort of, he heard me and Bella…you know say all that stuff in the station."

"So do you think Alice will know?"

"Well Jasper shouldn't really be saying stuff that relates to an investigation, but it was Bella, and them two tell each other everything, so I would be surprised if she didn't." I looked to him curiously, wondering where he was going with this, "Why?"

"Because now I know I'm not going to be the only one trying to get the two of you back together." With that he smiled at me, and got up to get another coffee, leaving me in shock.

.

.

Emmett and I had stayed in that waiting area for another hour or so before I said we should go back to the room and to the seat I had in a small area opposite her room.

Emmett had said to me he had just wanted to go inside to check on her, but he hadn't come back out after half an hour, so I slowly opened the room door to check what was going on, and saw Emmett had pulled the chair right next to the hospital bed, and had fallen asleep in it.

I quietly shut the door and left him be.

When I turned and looked at the chair I had been sat in, I thought differently. Emmett was in there now, he would be able to protect her if I went, and with the time it was now, I thought it would probably be best if I left for Chicago.

So instead of sitting back in the chair, I turned to walk down the corridor, and reached the double doors when I heard someone shout my name.

I stopped at the doors and turned around to see Emmett's head peeking out of Bella's room. He slowly closed the door behind him and walked up to me.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going to head back to Chicago; my boss wants a word with me." I said, my tone implying it wasn't to be praised.

Emmett grimaced, "That's unlucky."

I nodded, "Plus I knew with you being here she would be safe even if I went." I gave him a small smile, "So I'll see you soon." I nodded a goodbye and turned to open the doors when he said to wait.

"Before you go I just need to tell you something, just in case I don't see you soon…" I nodded for him to go ahead, "it's about Bella.

"You see I know you two have agreed to stay apart, and I know, as I'm sure you know, it takes a lot to change Bella's stubborn mind."

I smiled, he wasn't far off with that, "However," he continued, "even though you've agreed with her, for now, I'm hoping that you saying that things weren't 'ideal' or whatever means that if I do try and persuade her to reconsider you two, then you fight to make things work, and don't shit out early on and you truly mean what you say."

"I do." I swore.

"'Cos I think she's mental, and will tell her so after she wakes up. I've been in this situation before Edward…well, not the exact same situation…point is, I had a girl leave me, a girl I've never loved more in my entire life, and I knew we were good for each other, and I know she knew it too, but instead she left me because she thought things would be better apart.

"And I just left it at that. Heartbroken I'll admit, but I just left it. And then what do I find out? She was engaged to her ex within a month, some idiot piece of shit who thought he was better than everyone, being some top business man, but he was far worse for her than I ever was.

"The point I'm trying to make here Edward was that if I maybe would have fought for what I felt, things could have went differently. Hell maybe I could have been a married man by now rather than still being single and in my thirties!" He laughed. A nurse at the end of the hallway shushed him, reminding him it was late at night.

"I know you're good for her Edward," he continued, his voice dropping to stay quiet, "despite what's transpired over the past few weeks, I can't deny that you two were good together."

"So, you don't want me to give up on us then?" I asked.

"No," He answered honestly, "I don't."

**~~*~~  
><strong>**Bella's POV  
>~*~<strong>

Ever had a dream which you was sure was real? And when you woke up it felt like a memory? Was I dreaming? Or had what happened really occurred?

What I was lying on was soft and comfortable, unlike the horrible mattress I had to lie on. The room was warm, and the smell of damp had gone.

And then my mind flashed to what had happened.

_"...what we both said, I don't think we should act upon it…"_

_"Bella, what are you trying to say?"_

"…_It would be better if we didn't do anything about it because ultimately we're both going to get hurt again."_

_"Yeah you're right; I would have said the same thing."_

And then I remembered climbing into the back of the paramedic van. So I was at the hospital, and everything did happen. And I was alive and safe. I knew that if I opened my eyes I wouldn't see well…nothing, no darkness.

I slowly opened my eyes, so grateful to have to adjust to the light in the room.

A hospital room isn't the greatest thing to see in the world, but for me right now it was.

I couldn't help looking around the room and taking in everything, being so grateful to see just random things. Because it meant it was real, and here in front of me and I knew I wouldn't have to see that wretched place ever again.

As I was taking it all in, my room door opened and a police officer walked in with a cup of coffee in his hand, and then he looked up to me and I realised it was Emmett and I couldn't help but smile.

He put the drink down on the nearest surface to him and strode over to me in just a few steps, his arms enveloping me in a hug and holding me tight as my arms wrapped around him. I could feel the tears building up in my eyes just to see my brother again.

"Oh Bells I'm so happy you're alright." He whispered as he gave me a small squeeze, being mindful of the IV lines protruding out of my arms of course. "You took your bloody time to wake up." He joked, pulling me away smiling. I quickly wiped my eyes so no tears would fall as I laughed as well.

"How long have I been out?"

"It's mid-afternoon; you were only admitted around midnight."

"Guess I needed my sleep." I smiled to him, "Where am I?"

"In a hospital in Seattle."

"Seattle?!" I said astonished, I didn't realise I was that far away from Chicago.

"Did you not know?"

"Of course not Em I've been locked up in a god damn room for a month." I had meant to say it in a light heartened fashion, but it came across angry. I felt a horrible shiver go down my spine and felt anxious.

Am I going to be troubled over what has happened to me for months? _Course you are dumbass, you've been over something traumatic, can't get over it just with the click of your fingers._

Emmett was looking at me like I was fragile, that he had just stepped heavily onto the eggshells rather than treading lightly around them.

"I'm sorry," He said simply, "I shouldn't have brought it up like that, I wasn't thinking…"

"No don't apologise," I told him, "I guess it's going to have to take a while."

I said a while, but who knew how long it was going to be. I opened up to Rosalie about Mason for the first time in years without breaking down on the spot. Is that how long it's going to take me?

"Why don't you switch the TV on Em?" I said instead, maybe to try and distract myself.

Emmett grabbed the remote and switched on the television, likely to understand my reason rather than just general interest.

"There's nothing on telly sorry Bells, I was watching it before, pretty much every channel is a breaking news story on…" He looked over to me, "…well you know."

He turned back to the screen and started flicking through the channels. It was a strange to hear him trying to avoid the subject with me. Like he had just took what I had said in his stride and was doing what was best for me, despite the fact I was sure he was full of questions he wanted to ask me.

"Oh well not every channel," He said randomly, "A teenager was found after almost a decade captive…aaand back to normal." He switched the screen off and turned back to me.

"Edward was here you know?" He told me.

"He was what?"

"Edward, he was here when I came, sat on some chairs outside your room."

"Oh God…you never hurt him did you?" I said panicked. It would be an Emmett thing to do.

"What, jeez Bells no, I actually hugged him…" I raised my eyebrows, my mouth open to remark on how my older brother actually hugged Edward, but he interrupted me, "…but before you say anything about _that_," he gave me a pointed look, "I think he was actually here still watching over you."

I sighed. Why was he making things so difficult for me?

"See, that right there," Emmett suddenly exclaimed.

"What? see what?!"

"That…" He imitated my sigh, but adding exaggeration on I presumed my annoyance and exasperation at Edward, "that is what I need to talk to you about."

"Do you not like the way I sigh?" I asked, ignoring the obvious.

"Shut up," He said, narrowing his eyes, "I mean about you and Edward."

"There's nothing to talk about." I said to him, my tone indicating that I didn't want to talk about it, but Emmett being Emmett just ignored it. He'll listen to me about what happened but won't leave _this _alone.

"He told me that you two weren't getting back together."

"And he'd be correct."

"Why the hell not?!"

"Why the hell do I have to tell you?!"

"Because you have to tell me why you're making this mistake?!"

I shook my head at him, "I'm not making a mistake."

"Then make me believe that."

I sighed, and opened my mouth to form my defence, but Emmett interrupted again, "No actually instead, just answer me one question, one question, I just need to see if something I heard is true."

"Fine, what?"

"Do you love Edward?"

I glared at him. I knew I couldn't lie to him, I could tell he knew what the answer was, or he had heard what had happened on that video call.

"Yes." I muttered.

"What was that? Couldn't hear you." He mockingly cupped his ear and I scowled at him.

"Yes." I said loudly.

"Then all future statements you now make are worthless." He said simply.

"You can't just say that Emmett! It's not that easy."

"Then make it simple for me to understand."

I opened and closed my mouth repeatedly, trying to word what I wanted to say. "Because I know I'm going to get hurt again," I said instead, "divorcing Edward, it hurt me a lot; I was in a low place. You won't like this Emmett, but when we were having that video call, I was ready to die." I noticed the slight movement of his hand clenching beside him, and a small flash of pain behind his eyes, but Emmett remained composed, "He saying that he loved me just put me in a better place at that moment.

"And then when I heard he was there, trying to save me, I felt something that I hadn't felt in months, and even though it was nice, my mind thought about what would happen if I ended up in the same position emotionally in a few months.

"And I don't think I can bare it Em. Right now, I need to pick myself up and get some sort of control on my life after what has happened, and I know it won't be easy. And I want to focus on finding Mason. I don't have time to rebuild a relationship with Edward in that time, especially if I'm going to end up heartbroken again."

I was waiting for Emmett's counter-argument, but instead Emmett placed his hand on mine, being careful not to nudge the IV line, and gave it a small squeeze. "Ok Bells."

I yawned, my eyes felt heavy again. I hadn't realised how little I'd slept, or rather how much I needed it.

"Go asleep Bells, I'll be here when you wake up." He smiled at me, and looking to the TV as I closed my eyes and drifted off.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: So here you go, another chapter :) sorry for the delay.<strong>

**Thanks to those who alerted/favourite/reviewed the story after the last chapter, appreciate it as always, and like always review and get a sneak peek of the next chapter :)**

**Just as a side note, anyone who were doing exams this summer, I hope you got the grades you wanted :)**

**Thanks**

**Jaimie xx**


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